UC-NRLF 


$B    30b   =121 


Professor  Meiklejohns 


Series  • 


foheEjVGL/Sfl 

Lthvgujtge 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/englishlanguageiOOjmmerich 


THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 

ITS    GRAMMAR,     HISTORY,    AND 
LITERATURE 


WITH   CHAPTERS   ON 

COMPOSITION,  VERSIFICATION,  PARAPHRASING, 
AND  PUNCTUATION 


J.   M.  D.   MEIKLEJOHN,  M.A. 

PROFESSOR  OF  THE  THEORY,   HISTORY,   AND  PRACTICE  OF  EDUCATION 
IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ST.    ANDREWS 


THIRTY-THIRD    EDITION 

ENLARGED  WITH  EXERCISE8,    ADDITIONAL  ANALYSIS,   AND  EXAMPLES 

OF  FALSE  OR  DOUBTFUL  SYNTAX 


[Thoroughly  Revised] 

LONDON 
MEIKLEJOHN  AND  SON  LTD. 

11  PATERNOSTER  SQUARE,  E.C. 
1920 

[All  Rights  Reserved] 


PREFACE 

This  book,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  found  useful  in  Training 
Colleges,  in  Secondary  Schools  both  for  boys  and  girls,  to 
candidates  for  Local  and  Matriculations  Examinations,  and 
to  other  classes  of  students. 

Only  the  most  salient  features  of  the  language  have  been 
described,  and  minor  details  have  been  left  for  the  teacher 
to  fill  in.  Even  in  the  text  as  it  stands,  the  experienced 
teacher  will  easily  be  able  to  point  his  pupils  towards  those 
portions  of  the  book  which  should  be  mastered  first,  leaving 
other  portions  of  it  (such  as  the  Grammar  of  Verse,  for 
instance)  to  be  subjects  of  later  study.  The  utmost  clear- 
ness and  simplicity  have  been  the  aim  of  the  writer,  and  he 
has  been  obliged  to  sacrifice  many  interesting  details  to  this 
aim. 

The  study  of  English  Grammar  is  becoming  every  day 
more  and  more  historical — and  necessarily  so.  There  are 
scores  of  inflections,  usages,  constructions,  idioms,  which  can- 
not be  truly  or  adequately  explained  without  a  reference  to 
the  past  states  of  the  language — to  the  time  when  it  was  a 
synthetic  or  inflected  language,  like  German  or  Latin. 

The  Syntax  of  the  language  has  been  set  forth  in  the  form 
of  Rules.  This  was  thought  to  be  better  for  young  learners, 
who  require  firm  and  clear  dogmatic  statements  of  fact  and 
duty.  But  the  skilful  teacher  will  slowly  work  up  to  these 
rules  by  the  interesting  process  of  induction,  and  will — when 

462407 


IV  PREFACE. 

it  is  possible — induce  his  pupil  to  draw  the  general  con- 
clusions from  the  data  given,  and  thus  to  make  rules  for 
himself.  Another  convenience  that  will  be  found  by  both 
teacher  and  pupil  in  this  form  of  rules  will  be  that  they  can 
be  compared  with  the  rules  of,  or  general  statements  about, 
a  foreign  language — such  as  Latin,  French,  or  German. 

It  is  earnestly  hoped  that  the  slight  sketches  of  the  History 
of  our  Language  and  of  our  Literature  may  not  only  enable 
the  young  student  to  pass  his  examinations  with  success,  but 
may  induce  him  to  study  the  original  works  for  himself. 

The  sixty  pages  of  exercises  and  examination  papers  will 
be  found  useful  by  both  pupil  and  teacher  alike. 

The  Index  will  be  of  assistance  in  preparing  the  parts  of 
each  subject,  as  all  the  separate  paragraphs  about  the  same 
subject  will  be  found  there  grouped  together. 

I  beg  to  thank  very  warmly  those  able  Teachers  who  have 
been  kind  enough  to  give  me  hints  and  suggestions  towards 
the  improvement  of  this  book ;  and  I  am  also  glad  to  note 
here  the  fact  that  Modern  Teaching  is  every  day  tending 
more  and  more  towards  clearness  and  simplicity. 

J.  M.  D.  M. 


The  present  edition  contains  a  number  of  carefully  selected 
examples  of  false,  doubtful,  or  genuine  syntax,  with  hints 
towards  their  correction  or  defence.  These  examples  are  taken 
from  papers  set  at  the  London  Matriculation,  the  College  of 
Preceptors',  the  Civil  Service,  and  various  other  public  ex- 
aminations. 


CONTENTS 


PART  L 


PACK 

LANGUAGE                .......            1 

ORTHOGRAPHY 

. 

.                .                 . 

5 

ETYMOLOGY 

. 

•                • 

8 

NOUNS 

. 

■                          .                          a 

9 

PRONOUNS 

. 

•                          .                           ■ 

.       23 

ADJECTIVES 

. 

•                          .                           • 

.       28 

VERBS 

. 

•                           .                           ■ 

.       34 

ADVERBS 

. 

>                          •                           . 

.       57 

PREPOSITIONS 

. 

58 

CONJUNCTIONS 

•                           •                           . 

.       60 

INTERJECTIONS 

. 

60 

WORDS  AND   THEIR  FUNCTIONS 

. 

,       61 

SYNTAX     . 

, 

.       64 

NOUN 

. 

64 

NOMINATIVE  CASE 

. 

64 

POSSESSIVE   CASE 

>                          .                          . 

67 

OBJECTIVE  CASE 

.                           . 

68 

DATIVE  CASE      . 

>                          .                           . 

69 

ADJECTIVE     . 

•                          . 

71 

PRONOUN        . 

.                          .                          i 

74 

VERB 

.                          i 

76 

ADVERB 

.                          • 

83 

PREPOSITION    AND   CONJUNCTION      . 

83-84 

EXAMPLES   OF   FALSE,   DOUBTFUL,    ( 

)R   GENUINE   SYNTAX        85(a) 

ANALYSIS 

.       86 

SIMPLE  SENTENCE     . 

87 

FORMS   OF   SENTENCES 

.                .                 . 

87 

PARTS   OF   THE  SENTENCE 

. 

88 

NOMINATIVE  OF   ADDRESS 

97 

COMPLEX  SENTENCE 

• 

103 

CAUTIONS   IN   THE   ANALYSIS   OF   COMPLEX    SENTENCES 

107 

THE  MAPPING  OUT   OF  COMPLEX  SENTENCES 

109 

COMPOUND  SENTENCE               .... 

111 

CO-ORDINATE  SENTENCES 

. 

112 

PARENTHETICAL  SENTENCES 

115 

WORD-BUILDING  AND   DERIVATION 

. 

116 

COMPOUND   N 

OUNS 

•                 •                 < 

116 

VI 


CONTENTS. 


word-building  and  derivation — Continued 

COMPOUND   ADJECTIVES 

COMPOUND   VERBS      . 

COMPOUND  ADVERBS 

PREFIXES   AND    SUFFIXES 

ENGLISH   PREFIXES 

LATIN   PREFIXES 

GREEK    PREFIXES 

ENGLISH   SUFFIXES 

LATIN  AND   FRENCH   SUFFIXES 

GREEK   SUFFIXES 
WO  RD-BRANCHING 

ENGLISH   ROOTS 

LATIN  ROOTS 

GREEK    ROOTS 
WORDS   DERIVED    FROM    THE   NAMES    OF    PERSONS 
WORDS   DERIVED   FROM   THE   NAMES   OF   PLACES 
WORDS  DISGUISED   IN   FORM 
WORDS   THAT   HAVE   CHANGED   IN   MEANING 

PART    II. 

COMPOSITION 

PUNCTUATION 

FIGURES   OF   SPEECH 

PARAPHRASING     . 

PROSODY  . 

EXERCISES 

EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS 

PART    III. 

THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  AND  THE  FAMILY  TO  WHICH  IT 

BELONGS 
THE  PERIODS  OF  ENGLISH 
HISTORY  OF  THE  VOCABULARY  . 
HISTORY  OF  THE  GRAMMAR 

SPECIMENS  OF  ENGLISH  OF  DIFFERENT  PERIODS 
MODERN  ENGLISH  .... 
LANDMARKS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 


PART    IV. 


HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 
TABLES   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 


349 
445 


INDEX 


459 


PART   I. 

THE  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 


INTKODUCTIOK 

1.  What  a  Language  is. — A  Language  is  a  number  of  con- 
nected sounds  which  convey  a  meaning.  These  sounds,  car- 
ried to  other  persons,  enable  them  to  know  how  the  speaker 
is  feeling,  and  what  he  is  thinking.  More  than  ninety  per  cent 
of  all  language  used  is  spoken  language ;  that  which  is  written 
forms  an  extremely  small  proportion.  But,  as  people  grow  more 
and  more  intelligent,  the  need  of  written  language  becomes  more ' 
and  more  felt ;  and  hence  all  civilised  nations  have,  in  course 
of  time,  slowly  and  with  great  difficulty  made  for  themselves  a 
set  of  signs,  by  the  aid  of  which  the  sounds  are,  as  it  were, 
indicated  upon  paper.  But  it  is  the  sounds  that  are  the 
language,  and  not  the  signs.  The  signs  are  a  more  or  less 
artificial,  and  more  or  less  accurate,  mode  of  representing  the 
language  to  the  eye.  Hence  the  names  language,  tongue, 
and  speech  are  of  themselves  sufficient  to  show  that  it  is  the 
spoken,  and  not  the  -written,  language  that  is  the  language, — 
that  is  the  more  important  of  the  two,  and  that  indeed  gives 
life  and  vigour  to  the  other. 

2.  The  Spoken  and  the  Written  Language. — Every  civilised 

language  had  existed  for  centuries  before  it  was  written  or 

printed.     Before   it   was   written,   then,   it   existed   merely  as 

a   spoken   language.      Our   own   tongue   existed   as  a  spoken 

language  for  many  centuries  before  any  of  it  was  committed 

to  writing.     Many  languages — such  as  those  in  the  south  of 

Africa — are  born,  live,  and  die  out  without  having  ever  been 

written  down  at  all.      The  parts  of  a  spoken   language   are 

called  sounds ;  the  smallest  parts  of  a  written  language  are 

A 


4  .GKAMMA?.  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

called  letters.     The  science  of    spoken  sounds  is  called  Pho- 
netics ;  the  science  of  written  signs  is  called  Alphabetics. 

3.  The  English  Language. — The  English  language  is  the 
language  of  the  English  people.  The  English  are  a  Teutonic 
people  who  came  to  this  island  from  the  north-west  of  Europe 
in  the  fifth  century,  and  brought  with  them  the  English  tongue 
—  but  only  in  its  spoken  form.  The  English  spoken  in 
the  fifth  century  was  a  harsh  guttural  speech,  consisting  of  a 
few  thousand  words,  and  spoken  by  a  few  thousand  settlers 
in  the  east  of  England.  It  is  now  a  speech  spoken  by  more 
than  150  millions  of  people — spread  all  over  the  world;  and 
it  probably  consists  of  a  hundred  thousand  words.  It  was  once 
poor ;  it  is  now  one  of  the  richest  languages  in  the  world : 
it  was  once  confined  to  a  few  corners  of  land  in  the  east  of 
England ;  it  has  now  spread  over  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the 
whole  of  North  America,  the  whole  of  Australasia,  and  parts  of 
Asia,  South  America,  and  Africa. 

4.  The  Grammar  of  English. — Every  language  grows.  It 
changes  as  a  tree  changes.  Its  fibre  becomes  harder  as  it  grows 
older ;  it  loses  old  words  and  takes  on  new — as  a  tree  loses  old 
leaves,  and  clothes  itself  in  new  leaves  at  the  coming  of  every 
new  spring.  But  we  are  not  at  present  going  to  trace  the 
growth  of  the  English  Language;  we  are  going,  just  now,  to 
look  at  it  as  it  is.  We  shall,  of  course,  be  obliged  to  look  back 
now  and  again,  and  to  compare  the  past  state  of  the  language 
with  its  present  state ;  but  this  will  be  necessary  only  when  we 
cannot  otherwise  understand  the  present  forms  of  our  tongue. 
A  description  or  account  of  the  nature,  build,  constitution,  or 
make  of  a  language  is  called  its  Grammar. 

5.  The  Parts  of  Grammar. — Grammar  considers  and  exam- 
ines language  from  its  smallest  parts  up  to  its  most  complex 
organisation.  The  smallest  part  of  a  written  language  is  a  let- 
ter; the  next  smallest  is  a  word;  and  with  words  we  make 
sentences.  There  is,  then,  a  Grammar  of  Letters  ;  a  Grammar 
of  Words ;  and  a  Grammar  of  Sentences.  The  Grammar  of  Let- 
ters is  called  Orthography ;  the  Grammar  of  Words  is  called 
Etymology ;  and  the  Grammar  of  Sentences  is  called  Syntax. 


THE   GRAMMAR   OF  LETTERS.  5 

There  is   also  a  Grammar  of  musically  measured   Sentences; 
and  this  grammar  is  called  Prosody. 

(i)  Orthography  comes  from  two  Greek  words:  orihos,  right;  and 
graphe,  a  writing.     The  word  therefore  means  correct  writing. 

(ii)  Etymology1  comes  from  two  Greek  words :  ettimos,  true ;  and  logos, 
an  account.     It  therefore  means  a  true  account  of  words. 

(iii)  Syntax  comes  from  two  Greek  words:  sun,  together,  with;  and 
taxis,  an  order.  When  a  Greek  general  drew  up  his  men  in  order  of 
battle,  he  was  said  to  have  them  "  in  syntaxis."  The  word  now  means 
an  account  of  the  build  of  sentences. 

(iv)  Prosody  comes  from  two  Greek  words :  pros,  to ;  and  ode,  a  song. 
It  means  the  measurement  of  verse. 

1  The  term  Etymology  is  also  used  to  denote  the  process  which  traces  the  origin 
or  derivation  of  a  word. 

THE   GRAMMAR   OF    SOUNDS    AND    LETTERS, 
or  ORTHOGRAPHY. 

6.  The  Grammar  of  Sounds. — There  are  two  kinds  of  sounds 
in  our  language :  (i)  the  open  sounds ;  and  (ii)  the  stopped 
sounds.  The  open  sounds  are  called  vowels;  the  stopped 
sounds  consonants.  Vowels  can  be  known  by  two  tests — a 
negative  and  a  positive.  The  negative  test  is  that  they  do  not 
need  the  aid  of  other  letters  to  enable  them  to  be  sounded ; 
the  positive  test  is  that  they  are  formed  by  the  continuous 
of  the  breath. 


(i)  Vowel  comes  from  Fr.  voyelle ;  from  Lat.  vScalis,  sounding. 

(ii)  Consonant  comes  from  Lat.  con,  with ;  and  sUno,  I  sound. 

(iii)  Two  vowel-sounds  uttered  without  a  break  between  them  are 
called  a  diphthong.  Thus  oi  in  boil ;  ai  in  aisle  are  diphthongs.  (The 
word  comes  from  Greek  dls,  twice  ;  and  phthonge,  a  sound.) 

7.  The  Grammar  of  Consonants:  (1)  Mutes. — There  are 
different  ways  of  stopping,  checking,  or  penning-in  the  con- 
tinuous flow  of  sound.  The  sound  may  be  stopped  (i)  by  the 
lips — as  in  ib,  ip,  and  im.  Such  consonants  are  called  Labials. 
Or  (ii)  the  sound  may  be  stopped  by  the  teeth — as  in  id,  it, 
and  in.  Such  consonants  are  called  Dentals.  Or  (iii)  the 
sound  may  be  stopped  in  the  throat — as  in  ig,  ik,  and  ing. 


6 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


These  consonants  are  called  Gutturals.    The  above  set  of  sounds 
are  called  Mutes,  because  the  sound  conies  to  a  full  stop. 

(i)  Labial  comes  from  Lat.  labium,  the  lip. 

(ii)  Dental  comes  from  Lat.  dens  (dents)  a  tooth.     Hence  also  dentist. 

(iii)  Guttural  comes  from  Lat.  guttur,  the  throat. 

(iv)  Palatal  comes  from  Lat.  palatum,  the  palate. 

8.  The  Grammar  of  Consonants:  (2)  Spirants.  Some  con- 
sonants have  a  little  breath  attached  to  them,  do  not  stop  the 
sound  abruptly,  but  may  be  prolonged.  These  are  called 
breathing  letters  or  spirants.  Thus,  if  we  take  an  ib  and 
breathe  through  it,  we  make  it  an  iv — the  b  becomes  a  v.  If 
we  take  an  ip  and  breathe  through  it,  it  becomes  an  if — the  p 
becomes  an  f.  Hence  v  and  f  are  called  spirant  labials.  The 
following  is  a  complete 

TABLE  OF  CONSONANT  SOUNDS. 


MUTES. 

SPIRANTS. 

Flat 
(or  Soft). 

Sharp 
(or  Hard). 

Nasal. 

Flat 
(or  Soft). 

Sharp 
(or  Hard). 

Trilled. 

Gutturals 

g 

(in  gig) 

k 

ng 

h 

Palatals  . 

J 

ch 

(church) 

y 

(yea) 

... 

Palatal       \ 
Sibilants  J 

... 

zh 

(azure) 

sh 

(sure) 

r 

Dental         \ 
Sibilants  J 

Z 

(prize) 

S 

1 

Dentals     . 

d 

t 

n 

th 

(bathe) 

th 

(bath) 

Labials 

b 

P 

m 

V&  W 

f  &wh 

(i)  The  above  table  goes  from  the  throat  to  the  lips — from  the  back  to 
the  front  of  the  mouth. 

(ii)  b  and  d  are  pronounced  with  less  effort  than  p  and  t.  Hence  b  and 
d,  etc.,  are  called  soft  or  flat ;  and  p  and  t,  etc.,  are  called  hard  or  sharp. 


THE   GRAMMAR  OF  LETTERS.  7 

9.  The  Grammar  of  Letters. — Letters  are  conventional 
signs  or  symbols  employed  to  represent  sounds  to  the  eye. 
They  have  grown  out  of  pictures,  which,  being  gradually  pared 
down,  became  mere  signs  or  letters.  The  steps  were  these ; 
picture  ;  abridged  picture  ;  diagram ;  sign  or  symbol.  The 
sum  of  all  the  letters  used  to  write  or  print  a  language  is  called 
its  Alphabet.  Down  to  the  fifteenth  century,  we  employed  a  set 
of  Old  English  letters,  such  as  a  b  t — I  JJ  J,  which  were  the 
Eoman  letters  ornamented ;  but,  from  that  or  about  that  time, 
we  have  used  and  still  use  only  the  plain  Roman  letters,  as 
a  b  c — x  y  z. 

The  word  alphabet  comes  from  the  name  of  the  first  two  letters  in 
the  Greek  language  :  alpha,  beta. 

10.  An  Alphabet. — An  alphabet  is,  as  we  have  seen,  a  code 
Af  signs  or  signals.  Every  code  of  signs  has  two  laws,  neither 
of  which  can  be  broken  without  destroying  the  accuracy  and 
trustworthiness  of  the  code.     These  two  laws  are  : 

(i)  One  and  the  same  sound  must  be  represented  by  one  and 
the  same  letter. 

Hence :  No  sound  should  be  represented  by  more  than  one  letter. 

(ii)  One  letter  or  set  of  letters  must  represent  only  one  and 
the  same  sound. 

Hence  :  No  letter  should  represent  more  than  one  sound. 

Or,  put  in  another  way  : 

(i)  One  sound  must  be  represented  by  one  distinct  symboL 
(ii)  One  symbol  must  be  translated  to  the  ear  by  no  more 
than  one  sound. 

(i)  The  first  law  is  broken  when  we  represent  the  long  sound  of  a  in 
eight  different  ways,  as  in — fate,  braid,  say,  great,  neigh,  prey,  gaol, 
gauge. 

(ii)  The  second  law  is  broken  when  we  give  eight  different  sounds  to 
the  one  symbol  ough,  as  in — bough,  cough,  dough,  hiccough  (=cup), 
hough  (=hock),  tough,  through,  thorough. 

11.  Our  Alphabet.— The  spoken  alphabet  of  English  contains 
forty-three  sounds ;  the  written  alphabet  has  only  twenty-six 
symbols  or  letters  to  represent  them.     Hence  the  English  al- 


8  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

phabet  is  very  deficient.  But  it  is  also  redundant.  For  it 
contains  five  superfluous  letters,  c,  q,  x,  iv,  and  y.  The  work 
of  the  letter  c  might  be  done-  by  either  A:  or  by  s ;  that  of  q 
by  &  /  x  is  equal  to  7cs  or  gs  ;  w  could  be  represented  by  oo  ; 
and  much  that  y  does  could  be  done  by  i.  It  is  in  the  vowel- 
sounds  that  the  irregularities  of  our  alphabet  are  most  discern- 
ible. Thirteen  vowel-sounds  are  represented  to  the  eye  in  more 
than  one  hundred  different  ways. 

(i)  There  are  twelve  ways  of  printing  a  short  i,  as  in  sit,  Cyril,  bwsy, 
women,  etc. 

(ii)  There  are  twelve  ways  of  printing  a  short  e,  as  in  set,  any,  bwry, 
bread,  etc. 

(iii)  There  are  ten  ways  of  printing  a  long  e,  as  in  mete,  marine,  meet, 
meat,  key,  etc. 

(iv)  There  are  thirteen  ways  of  printing  a  short  u,  as  in  bud,  love, 
berth,  rough,  flood,  etc. 

(v)  There  are  eleven  ways  of  printing  a  long  w,  as  in  rude,  move,  blew, 
true,  etc. 


THE    GEAMMAE    OF    WOEDS,    or    ETYMOLOGY. 

There  are  eight  kinds  of  words  in  our  language.  These  are 
(i)  Names  or  Nouns,  (ii)  The  words  that  stand  for  Nouns  are 
called  Pronouns,  (iii)  Next  come  the  words-that-go-with- 
Wouns  or  Adjectives,  (iv)  Fourthly,  come  the  words-that- 
say-something-of-Nouns  or  Verbs,  (v)  Next,  the  words  that 
qualify  any  part  of  speech  except  a  pronoun  are  called  Adverbs, 
(vi)  The  words  that-show-relation  are  called  Prepositions ; 
(vii)  those  that -join -Words -and -join -Sentences  are  called 
Conjunctions,  Lastly  (viii)  come  Interjections,  which  are 
indeed  mere  sounds  without  any  organic  or  vital  connection 
with  other  words ;  and  they  are  hence  sometimes  called  extra- 
grammatical  utterances.  Nouns  and  Adjectives,  Verbs  and 
Adverbs,  have  distinct,  individual,  and  substantive  meanings.' 
Pronouns  have  no  meanings  in  themselves,  but  merely  refer  to 
nouns,  just  like  a  |§§p"  in  a  book.    Prepositions  and  Conjunctions 


THE  CLASSIFICATION   OF  NOUNS.  9 

once  had  independent  meanings,  but  have  not  much  now  :  their 
chief  use  is  to  join  words  to  each  other.  They  act  the  part 
of  nails  or  of  glue  in  language.  Interjections  have  a  kind  of 
meaning ;  but  they  never  represent  a  thought — only  a  feeling, 
a  feeling  of  pain  or  of  pleasure,  of  sorrow  or  of  surprise. 

NOUNS. 

L  A  Noun  is  a  name,  or  any  word  or  words  used  as  a 
name. 

Ball,  house,  fish,  John,  Mary,  are  all  names,  and  are  therefore  nouns. 
"  To  walk  in  the  open  air  is  pleasant  in  summer  evenings."  The  two 
words  to  walk  are  used  as  the  name  of  an  action  ;  to  walk  is  therefore 
a  noun. 

The  word  noun  comes  from  the  Latin  nomen,  a  name.  From  this  word  we  have 
also  nominal,  denominate,  denomination,  etc. 

THE    CLASSIFICATION    OF    NOUNS. 

2.  Nouns  are  of  two  classes — Proper  and  Common. 

3.  A  proper  noun  is  the  name  of  an  individual,  as  an  in* 
dividual,  and  not  as  one  of  a  class. 

John,  Mary,  London,  Birmingham,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  are  all  proper 
nouns. 

The  word  proper  comes  from  the  Latin  proprius,  one's  own.  Hence  a 
proper  noun  is,  in  relation  to  one  person,  one's  own  name.  From  the  same  word 
we  have  appropriate,  to  make  one's  own  ;  expropriate,  etc 

(i)  Proper  nouns  are  always  written  with  a  capital  letter  at  the 
beginning  ;  and  so  also  are  the  words  derived  from  them.  Thus  we 
write  France,  French,  Frenchified  ;  Milton,  MUtonic  ;  Shakespeare,  Shake- 
spearian. 

(ii)  Proper  nouns,  as  such,  have  no  meaning.  They  are  merely  marks 
to  indicate  a  special  person  or  place.  They  had,  however,  originally  a 
meaning.  The  persons  now  called  Armstrong,  Smith,  Greathead,  no 
doubt  had  ancestors  who  were  strong  in  the  arm,  who  did  the  work  of 
smiths,  or  who  had  large  heads. 

(iii)  A  proper  noun  may  be  used  as  a  common  noun,  when  it  is  em- 
ployed not  to  mark  an  individual,  but  to  indicate  one  of  a  class.  Thus 
we  can  say,  "He  is  the  Milton  of  his  age,"  meaning  by  this  that  he 
possesses  the  qualities  which  all  those  poets  have  who  are  like  Milton. 

(iv)  We  can  also  speak  of  "  the  Howards,"  "  the  Smiths,"  meaning  a 
number  of  persons  who  are  called  Howard  or  who  are  called  Smith. 


10  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

4.  A  common  noun  is  the  name  of  a  person,  place,  or  thing, 
considered  not  merely  as  an  individual,  but  as  one  of  a  class. 
Horse,  town,  boy,  table,  are  common  nouns. 

The  word  common  comes  from  the  Lat.  communis,  "shared  by  several";  and 
we  find  it  also  in  community,  commonalty,  etc. 

(i)  A  common  noun  is  so  called  because  ib  belongs  in  common  to  all 
the  persons,  places,  or  things  in  the  same  class. 

(ii)  The  name  rabbit  marks  off,  or  distinguishes,  that  animal  from 
all  other  animals  ;  but  it  does  not  distinguish  one  rabbit  from  another — 
it  is  common  to  all  animals  of  the  class.  Hence  we  may  say  :  a  com- 
mon noun  distinguishes  from  without ;  but  it  does  not  distinguish  within 
its  own  bounds. 

(iii)  Common  nouns  have  a  meaning;  proper  nouns  have  not.  The 
latter  may  have  a  meaning ;  but  the  meaning  is  generally  not  appro, 
priate.  Thus  persons  called  Whitehead  and  Longshanks  may  be  dark 
and  short.    Hence  such  names  are  merely  signs,  and  not  significant  marks. 

5.  Common  nouns  are  generally  subdivided  into— 

(i)  Class-names. 

(ii)  Collective  nouns. 

(iii)  Abstract  nouns. 

(i)  Under  class-names  are  included  not  only  ordinary  names,  but 
also  the  names  of  materials — as  tea,  sugar,  wheat,  water.  The  names 
of  materials  can  be  used  in  the  plural  when  different  kinds  of  the 
material  are  meant.  Thus  we  say  "fine  teas,"  "coarse  sugars,"  when 
we  mean  fine  hinds  of  tea,  etc. 

(ii)  A  collective  noun  is  the  name  of  a  collection  of  persons  or 
things,  looked  upon  by  the  mind  as  one.  Thus  we  say  committee, 
parliament,  crowd;  and  think  of  these  collections  of  persons  as  each 
one  body. 

(iii)  An  abstract  noun  is  the  name  of  a  quality,  action,  or  state, 
considered  in  itself,  and  as  abstracted  from  the  thing  or  person  in 
which  it  really  exists.  Thus,  we  see  a  number  of  lazy  persons,  and 
think  of  laziness  as  a  quality  in  itself,  abstracted  from  the  persons. 
(From  Lat.  abs,  from  ;  tractus,  drawn.) 

(a)  The  names  of  arts  and  sciences  are  abstract  nouns,  because  they  are  the 
names  of  processes  of  thought,  considered  apart  and  abstracted  from  the 
persons  who  practise  them.  Thus,  music,  painting,  grammar,  chemistry, 
astronomy,  are  abstract  nouns. 

(iv)  Abstract  nouns  are  (a)  derived  from  adjectives,  as  hardness, 
dulness,  sloth,  from  hard,  dull,  and  slow;  or  (6)  from  verbs,  as  growth, 
thought,  from  grow  and  think. 


THE   INFLEXIONS   OF   NOUNS  11 

(v)  Abstract  nouns  are  sometimes  used  as  collective  nouns.  Thus 
we  say  "the  nobility  and  gentry  "for  "the  nobles  and  gentlemen" 
of  the  land. 

(vi)  Abstract  nouns  are  classed  under  common  nouns,  because  they 
stand  for  every  instance  of  the  action,  state,  or  quality  they  denote. 

6.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  divisions  of  nouns  : — 
NOUNS. 


Proper  Common. 


Class-Names.         Collective  Nouns.         Abstract  Nouns. 


THE    INFLEXIONS    OF    NOUNS. 

7.  Nouns  can  be  inflected  or  changed.     They  are  inflected  to 
indicate  Gender,  Number,  and  Case. 

We  must  not,  however,   forget  that  differences  of  gender, 
number,  or  case  are  not  always  indicated  by  inflexion. 

Injlexio  is  a  Latin  word  which  means  bending.    An  inflexion,  therefore,  is  a 
bending  away  from  the  ordinary  form  of  the  word. 

Gender. 

8.  Gender  is,  in  grammar,  the  mode  of  distinguishing  sex  by 
the  aid  of  words,  prefixes,  or  suffixes. 

The  word  gender  comes  from  the  Lat.  genus,  generis  (Fr.  genre),  a 
kind  or  sort.  We  have  the  same  word  in  generic,  general,  etc.  (The 
d  in  gender  is  no  organic  or  true  part  of  the  word ;  it  has  been  in- 
serted as  a  kind  of  cushion  between  the  n  and  the  r.) 

(i)  Names  of  males  are  said  to  be  of  the  masculine  gender,  as  master, 
lord,  Harry.     Lat.  mas,  a  male. 

(ii)  Names  of  females  are  of  the  feminine  gender,  as  mistress,  lady, 
Harriet.  Lat.  femina,  a  woman.  (From  the  same  word  we  have 
effeminate,  etc.) 

(iii)  Names  of  things  without  sex  are  of  the  neuter  gender,  as  head, 
tree,  London.  Lat.  neuter,  neither.  (From  the  same  word  we  have 
neutral,  neutrality.) 

(iv)  Names  of  animals,  the  sex  of  which  is  not  indicated,  are  said  to 
be  of  the  common  gender.  Thus,  sheep,  bird,  hawk,  parent,  servant,  are 
common,  because  they  may  be  of  either  gender. 


12  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

(v)  We  may  sum  up  thus  : — 

Gender 

! 

i  i  i  f 

Masculine.  Feminine.  Neuter.  Common. 

{Neither)  {Either) 

(vi)  If  we  personify  things,  passions,  powers,  or  natural  forces,  we  may 
make  them  either  masculine  or  feminine.  Thus  the  Sun,  Time,  the 
Ocean,  Anger,  War,  a  river,  are  generally  made  masculine.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Moon,  the  Earth  ("  Mother  Earth  "),  Virtue,  a  ship,  Religion, 
Pity,  Peace,  are  generally  spoken  of  as  feminine. 

(vii)  Sex  is  a  distinction  between  animals ;  gender  a  distinction  be- 
tween  nouns.  In  Old  English,  nouns  ending  in  dom,  as  freedom,  were 
masculine  ;  nouns  in  ness,  as  goodness,  feminine  ;  and  nouns  in  en,  as 
maiden,  chicken,  always  neuter.  But  we  have  lost  all  these  distinctions, 
and,  m  modern  English,  gender  always  follows  sex. 

9.  There  are  three  ways  of  marking  gender  : — 

(i)  By  the  use  of  Suffixes. 
(ii)  By  Prefixes  (or  by  Composition). 

(iii)  By  using  distinct  words  for  the  names  of  the  male  and 
female. 


I.  Gender  marked  by  Suffixes. 

A.    Purely  English  or  Teutonic  Suffixes. 

10.  There  are  now  in  our  language  only  two  purely  English 
suffixes  used  to  mark  the  feminine  gender,  and  these  are  used 
in  only  two  words.  The  two  endings  are  en  and  ster,  and  the 
two  words  are  vixen  and  spinster. 

(i)  Vixen  is  the  feminine  of  fox ;  and  spinster  of  spinner  {spinder  or 
spinther,  which,  later  on,  became  spider).  King  Alfred,  in  his  writings, 
speaks  of  "  the  spear-side  and  the  spindle-side  of  a  house  " — meaning  the 
men  and  the  women. 

(ii)  Ster  was  used  as  a  feminine  suffix  very  largely  in  Old  English. 
Thus,  webster  was  a  woman-weaver ;  baxter  (or  bagster),  a  female  baker ; 
hoppester,  a  woman-dancer ;  redester,  a  woman-reader;  huckster,  a  female 
hawker  (travelling  merchant)  ;  and  so  on. 

(iii)  In  Ancient  English  (Anglo-Saxon)  the  masculine  ending  was  a, 
and  the  feminine  e,  as  in  wicca,  wicce,  witch.  Hence  we  find  the  names 
of  many  Saxon  kings  ending  in  a,  as  Ida,  Offa,  Penda,  etc. 


GENDER  INDICATED  BY  SUFFIXES  AND  PREFIXES. 


13 


B.    Latin  and  French  Suffixes. 

11.  The  chief  feminine  ending  which  we  have  received  from 
the  French  is  ess  (Latin,  issa).  This  is  also  the  only  feminine 
suffix  with  a  living  force  at  the  present  day — the  only  suffix  we 
could  add  to  any  new  word  that  might  be  adopted  by  us  from 
a  foreign  source. 

12.  The  following  are  nouns  whose  f  em  mines  end  in  ess : — 


Masculine. 

Feminine. 

Masculine. 

Feminine. 

Actor 

Actress. 

Host 

Hostess. 

Baron 

Baroness. 

Lad 

Lass  (  =  ladess). 

Caterer 

Cateress. l 

Marquis 

Marchioness. 

Count 

Countess. 

Master 

Mistress. 

Duke 

Duchess. 

Mayor 

Mayoress. 

Emperor 

Empress. 

Murderer 

Murderess. 

It  will  be  noticed  that,  besides  adding  ess,  some  of  the 
letters  undergo  change  or  are  thrown  out  altogether. 

There  are  other  feminine  suffixes  of  a  foreign  origin,  such  a8 
ine,  a,  and  trix. 

(i)  ine  is  a  Greek  ending,  and  is  found  in  heroine.  A  similar  ending  in 
landgravine  and  margravine,  the  feminines  of  landgrave  (a  Qerman 
count)  and  margrave  (a  lord  of  the  Mark  or  of  marches),  is  German. 

(ii)  a  is  an  Italian  or  Spanish  ending,  and  is  found  in  donna  (the 
feminine  of  Don,  a  gentleman),  infanta  ( =  the  child,  the  heiress  to  the 
crown  of  Spain),  sultana,  and  signora  (the  feminine  of  Signor,  the 
Italian  for  Senior,  elder,  which  we  have  compressed  into  Sir). 

(iii)  trix  is  a  purely  Latin  ending,  and  is  found  only  in  those  words 

that  have  come  to  us  directly  from  Latin ;  as  testator,  testatrix  (a  person 

who  has  made  a  will),  executor,  executrix  (a  person  who  carries  out  the 

directions  of  a  will). 

1  Obsolete. 


II.  Gender  indicated  by  Prefixes  (or  by  Composition). 

13.  The  distinction  between  the  masculine  and  the  feminine 
gender  is  indicated  by  using  such  words  as  man,  maid — bull, 
cow — he,  she — cock,  hen,  as  prefixes  to  the  nouns  men- 
tioned. In  the  oldest  English,,  carl  and  cwen  ( =  queen)  were 
employed  to  mark  gender  ;  and  carl-fugol  is  =  cock-fowl,  cwen- 
f  ugol  =  hen-f  owL 


14 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


14.  The   following   are   the   most   important  words   of   this 
kind : — 


Masculine. 
Man-servant 
Man 
He -goat 
He-ass 
Jack-ass 


Feminine. 
Maid- servant. 
Woman  ( —  wife-man) 
She-goat. 
She-ass. 
Jenny-ass. 


Buck-rabbit     Doe-rabbit. 


Masculine. 
Bull-calf 
Cock-sparrow 
Wether-lamb 
Pea-cock 
Turkey-cock 
Tom-cat 


Feminine. 
Cow-calf. 
Hen-sparrrow. 
Ewe-lamb. 
Pea-hen. 
Turkey-hen. 
Tib-cat. 


(i)  In  the  time  of  Shakespeare,  he  and  she  were  used  as  nouns.  We 
find  such  phrases  as  "  The  proudest  he,"  "  The  fairest  she,"  "  That  not 
impossible  she." 

III.  Gender  indicated  by  Different  Words. 

15.  The  use  of  different  words  for  the  masculine  and  the  fem- 
inine does  not  really  belong  to  grammatical  gender.  It  may  be 
well,  however,  to  note  some  of  the  most  important : — 


Masculine. 

Feminine. 

Masculine.               Feminine. 

Bachelor 

Spinster. 

Husband              Wife. 

Boy 

Girl 

King                     Queen. 

Brother 

Sister. 

Lord                     Lady. 

Foal 

Filly. 

Monk                     Nun. 

Drake 

Duck. 

Nephew                Niece. 

Drone 

Bee. 

Ram  (or  Wether)  Ewe. 

Earl 

Countess. 

Sir                         Madam. 

Father 

Mother. 

Sloven                   Slut. 

Gander 

Goose. 

Son                        Daughter 

Hart 

Hind. 

Uncls                     Aunt. 

Horse 

Mare. 

Wizard                  Witch. 

(i)  Bachelor  (lit.,  a  cow-boy),  from  Low  Lat.  baccalarius ;  from  bacca, 
Low  Lat.  for  vacca,  a  cow.     Hence  also  vaccination. 

(ii)  Girl,  from  Low  German  gov,  a  child,  by  the  addition  of  the 
diminutive  I. 

(iii)  Filly,  the  dim.  of  foal.  (When  a  syllable  is  added,  the  previous 
vowel  is  often  modified  :  as  in  cat,  kitten  ;  cock,  chicken  ;  cook,  kitchen.) 

(iv)  Drake,  a  contraction  of  ened-rake,  from  the  A.S.  ened,  a  duck. 
It  has  been  stated  that  "  rake  "  means  "  master,"  but  this  is  quite  un- 
certain.    The  word  duck  simply  means  the  bird  that  ducks  or  dives. 

(v)  Drone,  from  the  droning  sound  it  makes. 

(vi)  Earl,  from  A.S.  tori,  a  warrior.  Countess  comes  from  the 
French  word  comtesse. 


GENDER.  15 

(vii)  Father  =  feeder  ;  cognate  of  fat,  food,  feed,  fodder,  foster,  etc. 

(viii)  Goose ;  in  the  oldest  A.S.  gans  ;  Gandr-a  (the  a  being  the  sign 
of  the  masc).  Hence  gander,  the  d  being  inserted  as  a  cushion  be- 
tween n  and  r,  as  in  thunder,  gender,  etc. 

(ix)  Hart  =  the  horned  one. 

(x)  Mare,  the  fern,  of  A.S.  mearh,  a  horse.  Hence  also  marshal,  which 
at  first  meant  horse-servant. 

(xi)  Husband,  from  Icelandic,  husbondi,  the  master  of  the  house.  A 
farmer  in  Norway  is  called  a  bonder. 

(xii)  King,  a  contraction  of  A.S.  cyning,  son  of  the  kin  or  tribe. 

(xiii)  Lord,  a  contraction  of  A.S.  hlaford — from  hl£f,  a  loaf,  and 
weard,  a  ward  or  keeper. 

(xiv)  Lady,  a  contraction  of  A.S.  hlaeTdige,  a  loaf-kneader. 

(xv)  The  old  A.S.  words  were  nefa,  nece. 

(xvi)  Woman  =  wife  -  man.  The  pronunciation  of  women  (wimmen) 
comes  nearer  to  the  old  form  of  the  word.     See  note  on  (iii.) 

(xvii)  Sir,  from  Lat.  senior,  elder. 

(xviii)  Madam,  from  Lat.  Mea  domina  (through  the  French  Ma  dame) 
-  my  lady. 

(xix)  Daughter  =  milker.     Connected  with  dug. 

(xx)  Wizard,  from  old  French  guiscart,  prudent.  Witch  has  no  con- 
nection with  wizard. 

16.  All  feminine  nouns  are  formed  from  the  masculine,  with 
four  exceptions  :  bridegroom,  widower,  gander,  and  drake, 
which  come  respectively  from  bride,  widow,  goose,  and  duck. 

(i)  Bridegroom  was  in  A.S.  brydguma  =  the  bride's  man.  (Guma  is  a 
cognate  of  the  Lat.  hom-o,  a  man — whence  humanity.) 

(ii)  Widower.  The  old  masc.  was  widuwa ;  the  fern,  widuwe.  It  was 
then  forgotten  that  widuwa  was  a  masculine,  and  a  new  masculine  had 
to  be  formed  from  widuwe. 


Number 

17.  Number  is,  in  nouns,  the  mode  of  indicating  whether  we 
are  speaking  of  one  thing  or  of  more. 

18.  The  English  language,  like  most  modern  languages,  has 
two  num"ber<s :  the  singular  and  the  plural- 


Plural. 

Singular. 

Plural. 

Boxes. 

Beef 

Beeves. 

Gases. 

Loaf 

Loaves. 

Witches. 

Shelf 

Shelves. 

Heroes. 

Staff 

Staves. 

Ladies. 

Thief 

Thieves. 

16  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(i)  Singular  come  from  the  Lat.  singuli,  one  by  one  ;  plural,  from 
the  Lat.  plures,  more  (than  one). 

(ii)  Mr  Barnes,  the  eminent  Dorsetshire  poet,  who  wrote  an  ex- 
cellent grammar,  called  "  Speech-craft,"  calls  them  onely  and  somely. 

19.  There  are  three  chief  ways  of  forming  the  plural  in 
English  :— 

(i)  By  adding  es  or  s  to  the  singular, 
(ii)  By  adding  en. 
(iii)  By  changing  the  vowel-sound. 

20.  First  Mode. — The  plural  is  formed  by  adding  es  or  s. 
The  ending  es  is  a  modern  form  of  the  old  A.S.  plural  in  as,  as 
stanas,  stones.     The  following  are  examples  : — 

Singular. 

Box 

Gas 

Witch 

Hero 

Lady 

(i)  It  will  be  seen  that  es  in  heroes  does  not  add  a  syllable  to  the  sing. 

(ii)  Nouns  ending  in  f  change  the  sharp  f  into  a  flat  v,  as  in  beev est 
etc.      But  we  say  roofs,  cliffs,  dwarfs,  chiefs,  etc. 

(iii)  An  old  singular  of  lady  was  ladie  ;  and  this  spelling  is  preserved 
in  the  pluraL  But  there  has  arisen  a  rule  on  this  point  in  modern 
English,  which  may  be  thus  stated  : — 

i&~  [a)  Y,  with  a  vowel  before  It,  is  not  changed  in  the  plural. 
Thus  we  write  keys,  valleys,  chimneys,  days,  etc. 

(6)  Y,  with  a  consonant  before  It,  is  changed  into  ie  when  s  is 
added  for  the  plural.  Thus  we  write  ladies,  rubies,  and  also  solilo- 
quies. 

(iv)  Beef  is  not  now  used  as  the  word  for  a  single  ox.  Shakespeare 
has  the  phrase  "  beef-witted  "  =  with  no  more  sense  than  an  ox. 

21.  Second  Mode. — The  plural  is  formed  by  adding  en  or 
ne.     Thus  we  have  oxen,  children,  brethren,  and  kine. 

(i)  Children  is  a  double  plural.  The  oldest  plural  was  cild-r-u,  which 
became  childer.  It  was  forgotten  that  this  was  a  proper  plural,  and  en 
was  added.  Brethren  is  also  a  double  plural.  En  was  added  to  the  old 
Northern  plural  brether — the  oldest  plural  being  brothr-u. 

(ii)  Kine  is  also  a  double  plural  of  cow.  The  oldest  plural  was  cy, 
and  this  still  exists  in  Scotland  in  the  form  of  kye.  Then  ne  was 
added. 


NUMBER. 


17 


22.  Third  Mode. — The  plural  is  formed  by  changing  the 
vowel-sound  of  the  word.     The  following  are  examples  : — 


Singula*. 

Plural. 

Singular. 

Plural. 

Man 

Men. 

Tooth 

Teeth. 

Foot 

Feet. 

Mouse 

Mice. 

Goose 

Geese. 

Louse 

Lice. 

(i)  To  understand  this,  we  must  observe  that  when  a  new  syllable  is 
added  to  a  word,  the  vowel  of  the  preceding  syllable  is  often  weakened. 
Thus  we  find  nation,  national ;  fox,  vixen.  Now  the  oldest  plurals  of 
the  above  words  had  an  additional  syllable  ;  and  it  is  to  this  that  the 
change  in  the  vowel  is  due. 

23.  There  are  in  English  several  nouns  with  two  plural 


forms,  with  different  meanings. 

Singular.  Plural. 

Brother  brothers  (by  blood) 

Cloth  cloths  (kinds  of  cloth) 

Die  dies  (stamps  for  coining) 

Fish  fishes  (looked  at  separately) 

Genius  geniuses  (men  of  talent) 

Index  indexes  (to  books) 

Pea  peas  (taken  separately) 

Penny  pennies  (taken  separately) 

Shot  shots  (separate  discharges) 


The  following  is  a  list : — 

Plural. 
brethren  (of  a  community), 
clothes  (garments), 
dice  (cubes  for  gaming), 
fish  (taken  collectively), 
genii  (powerful  spirits), 
indices  (to  quantities  in  algebra), 
pease  (taken  collectively), 
pence  (taken  collectively), 
shot  (balls,  collectively) 


(i)  Pea  is  a  false  singular.  The  s  belongs  to  the  root ;  and  we  find  in 
Middle  English  "  as  big  as  a  pease,"  and  the  plurals  pesen  and  peses. 

24.  Some  nouns  have  the  same  form  in  the  plural  as  in  the 
singular.  Such  are  deer,  sh^ep,  cod,  trout,  mackerel,  and 
others. 

(i)  Most  of  these  nouns  were,  in  Old  English,  neuter. 

(ii)  A  special  plural  is  found  in  such  phrases  as  :  A  troop  of  horse ; 
a  company  of  foot ;  ten  sail  of  the  line  ;  three  brace  of  birds  ;  six  gross  of 
steel  pens;  ten  stone  weight,  etc.  In  fact,  the  names  of  numbers, 
weights,  measures,  etc.,  are  not  put  into  the  plural  form.  Thus  we  say, 
ten  hundredweight,  five  score,  five  fathom,  six  brace.  In  Old  English  we 
also  said  forty  year,  sixty  winter;  and  we  still  say,  a  twelvemonth,  a  fort- 
night (=;fourteen  nights). 

25.  There  are  in  English  several  false  plurals — that  is,  real 
singulars  which  look  like,  and  are  now  used  as,  plurals.  These 
are  alms,  riches,  and  eaves. 


18  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

(i)  Alms  is  a  compressed  form  of  the  A.S.  aelmesse  (which  is  from  the 
Greek  eleemosune).  We  find  in  Acts  iii.  3,  "an  alms."  The  adjective 
connected  with  it  is  eleemosynary. 

(ii)  Riches  comes  from  the  French  richesse. 

(iii)  Eaves  is  the  modern  form  of  the  A.S.  efese,  a  margin  or  edge. 

26.  There  are  in  English,  several  plural  forms  that  are  re- 
garded and  treated  as  singulars.     The  following  is  a  list : — 

Amends.  Odds.  Smallpox. 

Gallows.  Pains.  Thanks. 

News.  Shambles.  Tidings. 

(i)  Smallpox = small  pocks. 

27.  There  are  many  nouns  that,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
can  be  used  only  in  the  pluraL  These  are  the  names  of 
things  (a)  That  consist  of  two  or  more  parts ;  or  (b)  That  are 
taken  in  the  mass. 

(a)  The  following  are  examples  of  the  first :, — 

Bellowa.  Pincers.  Shears.  Tweezers. 

Drawers.  Pliers.  Snuffers.  Tongs. 

Fetters.  Scissors.  Spectacles.  Trousers. 

(6)  The  following  are  examples  of  the  second  : — 

Annals.  Dregs.  Hustings.  Oats. 

Archives.  Embers.  Lees.  Staggers. 

Ashes.  Entrails.  Measles.  Stocks. 

Billiards.  Glanders.  '    Mumps.  Victuals. 

jj®"  It  must  be  noticed  that  several  nouns — some  of  them  in  the 
above  class — change  their  meaning  entirely  when  made  plural.     Thus — 


Singular. 

Plural. 

Singular. 

Plural. 

Beef 

Beeves. 

Iron 

Irons. 

Copper 

Coppers. 

Pain 

Pains. 

Good 

Goods. 

Spectacle 

Spectacles. 

28.  The  English  language  has  adopted  many  foreign  plurals. 
These,  (a)  when  fully  naturalised,  make  their  plurals  in  the 
usual  English  way ;  (b)  when  not  naturalised,  or  imperfectly, 
keep  their  own  proper  plurals. 

(a)  As  examples  of  the  first  kind,  we  have — 

Bandits,  cherubs,  dogmas,  indexes,   memorandums,  focuses,  formulas, 
terminuses,  etc. 


CASE. 


19 


(b)  As 

examples  of  the  second,  l 

we  find — 

(1)  Latin 

Singular. 
Animalculum 
Datum 
Formula 
Genus 

Plural. 
Animclcula. 
Data. 
Formulae. 
Genera. 

Singular. 
Radix 
Series 
Species 
Stratum 

PlurJl. 
Radices. 
Series. 
Species. 
Strata. 

(2)  Greek 

Analysis 

Axis 

Miasma 

Analyses. 

Axes. 

Miasmata. 

Ellipsis 

Parenthesis 

Phenomenon 

Ellipses. 

Parentheses. 

Phenomena. 

(3)  French 

Monsieur 

Messieurs. 

Madam 

Mesdames. 

(4)  Italian 

Bandit 
Dilettante 

Banditti 
Dilettanti. 

Libretto 
Virtuoso 

Libretti. 
Virtuosi. 

(5)  Hebrew 

Cherub 

Cherubim. 

Seraph 

Seraphim. 

(i)  The  Greek  plurals  acoustics,  ethics,  mathematics,  optics,  politics,  etc., 
were  originally  adjectives.  We  now  say  logic — but  logics,  which  still 
survives  in  the  Irish  Universities — wae  the  older  word. 

29.  Compounds  attach  the  sign  of  the  plural  to  the  leading 
word,  especially  if  that  word  be  a  noun.  These  may  be  divided 
into  three  classes  : — 

(a)  When  the  plural  sign  is  added  to  the  Noun,  as :  sons-in-lawt 
hangers-on,  lookers-on,  courts-martial,  etc. 

(b)  When  the  compound  word  is  treated  as  one  word,  as  :  attorney 
generals,  major-generals,  spoonfuls,  handfuls,  etc. 

(c)  When  both  parts  of  the  compound  take  the  plural  sign,  as  :  men- 
servants,  knights-templars,  lords-justices,  etc. 

Case. 

30.  Case  is  the  form  given  to  a  noun  to  show  its  relation  to 
other  words  in  the  sentence.  Our  language  has  lost  most  of 
these  forms;  but  we  still  use  the  word  ease  to  indicate  the 
function,  even  when  the  form  has  been  lost. 


(i)  The  word  case  is  from  the  Latin 
casus,  and  means  a  falling.  The  old  gram- 
marians regarded  the  nominative  as  the 
upright  case,  and  all  others  as  fallings 
from  that.  Hence  the  use  of  the  words 
decline  and  declension.  (Of  course  the 
nominative  cannot  be  a  real  case,  because, 
it  is  upright  and  not  a  falling.) 

B 


20  GRAMMAK   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

31.  We  now  employ  five   cases;     Nominative,  Possessive, 
Dative,  Objective,  and  Vocative. 

(i)  In  Nouns,  only  one  of  these  is  inflected,  or  has  a  case-ending — the 


(ii)  In  Pronouns,  the  Possessive,  Dative,  and  Objective  are  inflected. 
But  the  inflexion  for  the  Dative  and  the  Objective  is  the  same.  Him 
and  them  are  indeed  true  Datives  :  the  old  inflection  for  the  Objective 
was  nine  and  hi. 

32.  The  following  are  the  definitions  of  these  cases  : — 

(1)  The  Nominative  Case  is  the  case  of  the  subject. 

(2)  The  Possessive  Case  indicates  possession,  or  some  sim- 
ilar relation. 

(3)  The  Dative  Case  is  the  case  of  the  Indirect  Object, 
and  also  the  case  governed  by  certain  verbs. 

(4)  The  Objective  Case  is  the  case  of  the  Direct  Object. 

(5)  The  Vocative  Case  is  the  case  of  the  person  spoken 
to.     It  is  often  called  the  Nominative  of  Address. 

(i)  Nominative  comes  from  the  Lat.  nomindre,  to  name.  From  the 
same  root  we  have  nominee. 

(ii)  Dative  comes  from  the  Lat  dativus,  given  to. 

(iii)  Vocative  comes  from  bhe  Lat.  vocativus,  spoken  to  or  addressed. 

33.  The  Nominative  Case  answers  to  the  question  Who  ?  or 
What  ?  It  has  always  a  verb  that  goes  with  .it,  and  asserts 
something  about  the  subject. 

34.  The  Possessive  Case  has  the  ending  's  in  the  singular ; 
's  in  the  plural,  when  the  plural  of  the  noun  ends  in  n ;  and  ' 
only  when  the  plural  ends  in  s. 

[|§p°  The  possessive  case  is  kept  chiefly  for  nouns  that  are 
the  names  of  living  beings.  We  cannot  say  "the  book's 
page "  or  "  the  box's  lid,"  though  in  poetry  we  can  say  "  the 
temple's  roof,"  etc.  There  are  many  points  that  require  to  be 
specially  noted  about  the  possessive  : — 

(i)  The  apostrophe  (from  Gr.  apo,  away,  and  strophe,  a  turning)  stands 
in  the  place  of  a  lost  e,  the  possessive  in  O.E.  having  been  in  many 
cases  es.  In  the  last  century  the  printers  always  put  hop'd,  walk'd, 
etc.,  for  hoped,  walked^  etc.     The  use  of  the  apostrophe  is  quite  modern. 


CASE.  21 

(ii)  If  the  singular  noun  ends  in  »,  we  often,  but  not  always,  write 
Moses'  rod,  for  conscience'  sake,  Phoebus'  fire  ;  and  yet  we  say,  and  ought 
to  say,  Jones's  books,  WUkins's  hat,  St  James's,  Chambers's  Journal,  etc. 

(iii)  We  find  in  the  Prayer-Book,  "  For  .fesus  Christ  his  sake."  This 
arose  from  the  fact  that  the  old  possessive  in  es  was  sometimes  written 
Is ;  and  hence  the  corruption  into  his.  Then  it  came  to  be  fancied  that 
'8  was  a  short  form  of  his.     But  this  is  absurd,  for  two  reasons  : — 

(a)  We  cannot  say  that  "  the  girl's  book  "  is  =  the  girl  his  book. 

(b)  We  cannot  say  that  "  the  men's  tools  "  iB  =  the  men  his  tools. 

35.  How  shall  we  account  for  the  contradictory  forms  Lord's- 
day  and  Lady-day,  Thurs-day  and  Fri-day,  Wedn-es-day  and 
Mon-day,  and  for  the  curious  possessive  "Witenagemot  P 

Lady-day  and  Friday  are  fragments  of  old  possessives.  Thus  the 
possessive  of  lady  was  in  M.E.  ladle  (cf.  Chaucer,  C.T.  88,  "in  his 
lady  grace  "  =  in  his  lady's  favour).  So  Friday  =  Frig  e-daeg  (from 
A.S.  Frige,  possessive  of  Friga,  the  goddess  of  lovo).  Monday  is  con- 
tracted from  Monanday,  monan  being  the  A.S.  poss.  of  the  masc.  sb. 
mona,  the  moon.  The  word  witenagemot  means  the  meet  or  meeting 
of  the  wltan  ( =  wise  men),  the  possessive  of  which  was  witena. 

36.  The  Dative  Case  answers  to  the  question  For  whom  P 
or  To  whom?  It  has  no  separate  form  for  Nouns ;  and  in 
Pronouns,  its  form  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Objective.  But 
it  has  a  very  clear  and  distinct  function  in  modern  English. 
This  function  is  seen  in  such  sentences  as — 

(1)  He  handed  the  lady  a  chair. 

(2)  Make  me  a  boat ! 

(3)  Woe  worth  the  day !    (  =  Woe  come  to  the  day  !) 

(4)  Heaven  send  the  Prince  a  better  companion  ! 

(5)  Heaven  send  the  companion  a  better  Prince  ! 

(6)  "  Sirrah,  knock  me  at  this  gate, 
Eap  me  here,  knock  me  well,  and  knock  me  soundly." 

(Shakespeare,  "Taming  of  the  Shrew,"  I.  ii.  31.) 

(7)  Methought  I  heard  a  cry  I   (  =  Meseems.) 

(8)  Hand  me  the  salt,  if  you  please. 

Some  grammarians  prefer  to  call  this  the  Case  of  the  In- 
direct Object ;  but  the  term  will  hardly  apply  to  day  in  (3),  to 
me  in  (7),  or  to  you  in  (8).  In  all  the  other  sentences,  the 
dative  may  be  changed  into  an  objective  with  the  prep,  to  or  for. 


22  GRAMMAK  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 

(i)  In  the  sixth  sentence,  the  me's  are  sometimes  called  Ethical 
Datives. 

(ii)  In  the  seventh  sentence,  methought  is  =  meseems,  or  it  seems  to  me. 
There  were  in  O.E.  two  verbs — thincan,  to  seem  ;  and  thencan,  to  think 

(iii)  In  the  eighth  sentence  the  phrase  if  you  please  is  =  if  it  please 
you,  and  the  you  is  a  dative.  If  the  you  were  a  nominative,  the  phrase 
would  mean  if  you  are  a  pleasing  person,  or  if  you  please  me. 

37.  The  Objective  Case  is  always  governed  by  an  active- 
transitive  verb  or  a  preposition.  It  answers  to  the  question 
Whom  ?  or  What  ?  It  is  generally  placed  after  the  verb.  Its 
form  is  different  from  that  of  the  Nominative  in  pronouns ; 
but  is  the  same  in  nouns. 

(i)  The  direct  object  is  sometimes  called  the  reflexive  object  when 
the  nominative  and  the  objective  refer  to  the  same  person — as,  "  I  hurt 
myself;"  "  Turn  (thou)  thee,  0  Lord  !  "  etc. 

(ii)  When  the  direct  object  is  akin  with  the  verb  in  meaning,  it  is 
sometimes  called  the  cognate  object.  The  cognate  object  is  found  in 
such  phrases  as  :  To  die  the  death ;  to  run  a  race ;  to  fight  a  fight,  etc. 

(iii)  A  second  object  after  such  verbs  as  make,  create,  appoint,  think, 
believe,  etc.,  is  often  called  the  factitive  object.  For  example  :  The 
Queen  made  him  a  general ;  we  thought  him  a  good  man,  etc.  The 
factitive  object  "makes  up"  or  complements  the  sense;  without  it 
the  predication  would  be  incomplete. 

Factitive  comes  from  the  Latin  facgre,  to  make. 

38.  The  difference  between  the  Nominative  and  the  Vocative 
cases  is  this  :  The  Nominative  case  must  always  have  a  verb 
with  it ;  the  Vocative  cannot  have  a  verb.  This  is  plain  from 
the  sentences : — 

(i)  John  did  that, 
(ii)  Don't  do  that,  John  ! 

39.  Two  nouns  that  indicate  the  same  person  or  thing  are 
said  to  be  in  apposition ;  and  two  nouns  in  apposition  may  be 
in  any  case. 

(i)  But,  though  the  two  nouns  are  in  the  same  case,  only  one  of 
them  has  the  sign  or  inflection  of  the  case.  Thus  we  say,  "  John  the 
gardener's  mother  is  dead."  Now,  both  John  and  gardener  are  in  the 
possessive  case;  and  yet  it  is  only  gardener  that  takes  the  sign  of 
the  possessive. 


PRONOUNS.  23 


PRONOUNS. 

1.  A  Pronoun  is  a  word  that  is  used  instead  of  a  noun. 
We  say,  "  John  went  away  yesterday ;  he  looked  quite  happy." 
In  this  case  the  pronoun  he  stands  in  the  place  of  John. 

(i)  The  word  pronoun  comes  from  the  Latin  pro,  for  ;  and  nomen, 
a  name. 

(ii)  The  above  definition  hardly  applies  to  the  pronoun  /.  If  we  say 
I  write,  the  /  cannot  have  John  Smith  substituted  for  it.  We  cannot 
say  John  Smith  vrrite.  I,  in  fact,  is  the  universal  pronoun  for  the 
person  speaking ;  and  it  cannot  be  said  to  stand  in  place  of  his  mere 
name.     The  same  remark  applies  to  some  extent  to  thou  and  you. 

2.  The  pronouns  are  among  the  oldest  parts  of  speech,  and 
have,  therefore,  been  subject  to  many  changes.  In  spite  of 
these  changes,  they  have  kept  many  of  their  inflexions ;  while 
our  English  adjective  has  parted  with  all,  and  our  noun  with 
most. 

3.  There  are  four  kinds  of  pronouns :  Personal ;  Inter-, 
rogative ;  Relative ;  and  Indefinite.  The  following  is  a 
table,  with  examples  of  each : — 

PRONOUNS. 

I 

i  ~T~  I  i 

Personal  Interrogative.  Relative.  Indefinite. 

I.  Who?  Who.  One. 


PERSONAL    PRONOUNS. 

4.  There  are  three  Personal  Pronouns :  The  Personal  Pro- 
noun of  the  First  Person ;  of  the  Second  Person ;  and  of  the 
Third  Person. 

5.  The  First  Personal  Pronoun  indicates  the  person  speak- 
ing; the  Second  Personal  Pronoun,  the  person  spoken  to; 
and  the  Third,  the  person  spoken  of. 

6.  The  First  Personal  Pronoun  has,  of  course,  no  distinc- 
tion of  gender.  It  is  made  up  of  the  following  forms,  which 
are  fragments  of  different  words :-  - 


24 


GRAMMAR   OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


Singular. 

Plural. 

Nominative 

I 

We. 

Possessive 

Mine  (or  My) 

Our  (or  Ours). 

Dative 

Me 

Us. 

Objective 

Me 

Us. 

(i)  We  is  not  =  I  + 1 ;  because  there  can  be  only  one  /  in  all  the  world. 
We  is  really  =  I  +  he,  I  +  you,  or  I  +  they. 

(ii)  /  can  have  no  vocative  as  such.  If  you  address  yourself,  you 
must  say  Thou  or  You. 

(iii)  The  dative  is  preserved  in  such  words  and  phrases  as  "Me 
thinks  "  ("  it  seems  to  me," — where  the  think  comes  from  thincan,  to 
seem,  and  not  from  thencan,  to  think);  "Woe  is  me;"  "Me-lists  (it 
pleases  me) ; "  "  If  you  please,"  etc. 

7.  The   Second   Personal   Pronoun    has   no    distinction   of 
gender.     It  has  the  following  forms : — 


Singular. 

Plural. 

Nominative 

Thou 

You  (or  Ye). 

Possessive 

Thine  (or  Thy) 

Your  (or  Yours). 

Dative 

Thee 

You. 

Objective 

Thee 

You. 

Vocative 

Thou 

You  (or  Ye). 

(i)  Ye  was  the  old  nominative  plural;  you  was  always  dative  or 
objective.     "  Ye  have  not  chosen  me  ;  but  I  have  chosen  you." 

(ii)  Thou  was,  from  the  14th  to  the  17th  century,  the  pronoun  of 
affection,  of  familiarity,  of  superiority,  and  of  contempt.  This  is  still 
the  usage  in  France  of  tu  and  toi.     Hence  the  verb  tutoyer. 

(iii)  My,  Thy,  Our,  Your  are  used  along  with  nouns;  Mine,  Thine, 
Ours,  and  Yours  cannot  go  with  nouns,  and  they  are  always  used  alone. 
Mine  and  Thine,  however,  are  used  in  Poetry  and  in  the  English  Bible 
with  nouns  which  begin  with  a  vowel  or  silent  h. 

8.  The  Third  Personal  Pronoun  requires  distinctions  of 
gender,  because  it  is  necessary  to  indicate  the  sex  of  the  person 
we  are  talking  of ;  and  it  has  them. 

Singular.  Plural. 


Masculine. 

Feminine. 

Neuter. 

All  Genders. 

Nom. 

He 

She 

It 

They. 

Pots. 

His 

Her  (or  Hers) 

Its 

Their  (or  Theirs), 

Dat. 

Him 

Her 

It 

Them. 

Obj, 

Him 

Her 

It 

Them. 

INTERROGATIVE  PRONOUNS.  25 

(i)  She  is  really  the  feminine  of  the  old  demonstrative  se,  seo,  ihaet  ; 
and  it  has  supplanted  the  old  A.S.  pronoun  heo,  which  still  exists  in 
Lancashire  in  the  form  of  hoo. 

(ii)  The  old  and  proper  dative  of  it  is  him.  The  old  neuter  of  he  was 
hit,  the  t  being  the  inflection  for  the  neuter  (still  used  in  Scotland). 

(iii)  Him,  the  dative,  came  to  be  also  used  as  the  objective.  The 
oldest  objective  was  nine. 

9.  The  Personal  Pronouns  are  often  used  as  Reflexive 
Pronouns.  Reflexive  Pronouns  are  (i)  datives ;  or  (ii)  objec- 
tives ;  or  (iii)  compounds  of  self  with  the  personal  pronoun. 
For  example  : — 

(i)  Dative :  "  I  press  me  none  but  good  householders,"  said  by  Fal- 
staff,  in  "King  Henry  IV.,"  I.  iv.  2,  16. 

"  I  made  me  no  more  ado,"  I.  ii.  4,  223. 

"  Let  every  soldier  hew  him  down  a  bough." — Macbeth,  V.  iv.  6. 

(ii)  Objective :  Shakespeare  has  such  phrases  as  /  whipt  me  ;  I  disrobed 
me;  I  have  learned  me.  In  modern  English,  chiefly  in  poetry,  we  have  : 
He  sat  him  down  ;  Get  thee  hence  I  etc. 

(iii)  Compounds  :  /  bethought  myself ;  He  wronged  himself ;  etc. 


•       INTERROGATIVE    PRONOUNS. 

10.  The  Interrogative  Pronouns  are  those  pronouns  which 
we  use  in  asking  questions.  They  are  -who,  which,  what,  and 
whether. 

(i)  The  word  interrogative  comes  from  the  Latin  interrogdre,  to  ask. 
Hence  also  interrogation,  interrogatory,  etc. 

11.  Who  is  both  masculine  and  feminine,  and  is  used  only  of 
persons.  Its  neuter  is  what.  (The  t  in  what,  as  in  that,  is 
the  old  suffix  for  the  neuter  gender.)  The  possessive  is  whose ; 
the  objective  whom.     The  following  are  the  forms  : — 

Singular  and  Plural. 


Masculine.  Feminine.  Neuter. 

Nominative          Who  Who  What. 

PoMessive             Whose  Whose  [Whose.] 

Objective              Whom  Whom  What 


26  grammar  of  the  English  language,. 

(i)  Who-m  is  really  a  dative,  like  hi-m.  But  we  now  use  it  only  as  an 
objective. 

(ii)  Whose  may  be  used  of  neuters  :  but  it  is  almost  invariably  em- 
ployed of  persons  only. 

12.  Which — formerly  hwilc — is  a  compound  word,  made  up 
of  hwi,  the  instr.  case  of  the  Old  English  hwa,  who,  and 
lie  =  like.  It  therefore  really  means,  Of  what  sort?  It  now 
asks  for  one  out  of  a  number ;  as,  "  Here  are  several  kinds  oi 
fruits  :  which  will  you  have  1 "     ' 

13.  Whether  is  also  a  compound  word,  made  up  "A  who  + 
ther ;  and  it  means,  Which  of  the  two  ? 

(i)  The  ther  in  whether  is  the  same  as  the  ther  in  neither,  etc. 

RELATIVE    OR    CONJUNCTIVE    PRONOUNS. 

14.  A  Relative  Pronoun  is  a  pronoun  which  possesses  two 
functions :  (i)  it  stands  for  a  noun ;  and  (ii)  it  joins  two  sen- 
tences together.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  both  a  pronoun  and  a  con- 
junction. For  example,  we  say,  "  This  is  the  man  whose  apples 
we  bought."  This  statement  is  made  up  of  two  sentences  :  (i) 
"This  is  the  man;"  and  (ii)  "We  bought  his  apples."  The 
relative  pronoun  whose  joins  together  the  two  sentences. 

(i)  Relative  Pronouns  might  also  be  called  conjunctive  pronouns. 

(ii)  Whose,  in  the  above  sentence,  is  called  relative,  because  it  relates 
to  the  word  man.     Man  is  called  its  antecedent,  or  goer-before. 
The  word  antecedent  comes  from  the  Lat.  ante,  before ;  and  cedo,  I  go. 

15.  The  Relative  Pronouns  are  that;  who,  which;  what. 
As  and  but  are  also  employed  as  relatives. 

(i)  Who,  which,  and  what  are  also  combined  with  so  and  ever,  and 
form  Compound  Relatives;  such  as  whoso,  whosoever,  whatsoever, 
and  whichsoever. 

(ii)  That  is  the  oldest  of  our  relative  pronouns.  It  is  really  the  neuter 
of  the  old  demonstrative  adj.,  se,  seo,  thaet.  It  differs  from  who  in  two 
respects  :  (a)  It  cannot  be  used  after  a  preposition.  "We  cannot  say, 
"This  is  the  man  with  that  I  went."  (6)  It  is  generally  employed  to 
limit,  distinguish,  and  define.  Thus  we  say,  "  The  house  that  I  built  is 
for  sale."  Here  the  sentence  that  I  built  is  an  adjective,  limiting  or  de- 
fining the  noun  house.     Hence  it  has  been  called  the  defining  relative. 


INDEFINITE   PRONOUNS.  27 

Who  or  which  may  introduce  a  new  fact  about  the  antecedent ;  that 
only  marks  it  off  from  other  nouns. 

(iii)  Who  has  whose  and  whom  in  the  possessive  and  objective — both 
in  the  singular  and  in  the  plural. 

(iv)  Which  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  the  neuter  of  who.  It  is  the  form 
used  when  the  antecedent  is  the  name  of  an  animal  or  thing.  After  a 
preposition,  it  is  sometimes  replaced  by  where ;  as  wherein  =  in  which ; 
whereto  =  to  which. 

(v)  What  performs  the  function  of  a  composite  pronoun  =that  +  which. 
If  we  examine  its  function  in  different  sentences,  we  shall  find  that  it 
may  be  equivalent  to — 

(a)  Two  Nominatives  ;  as  in  '  This  is  what  he  is  "  ( =  the  person  that). 

(6)  Two  Objectives ;  as  in  "  He  has  what  he  asked  for  "  ( =  the  thing  that). 

(c)  Nom.  and  Obj. ;  as  in  "  This  is  what  he  asked  for  "  ( =  the  thing  that). 

(d)  Obj.  and  Nom. ;  as  in  "  I  know  what  he  is  "  ( =  the  person  that). 

(vi)  As  is  the  proper  relative  after  the  adjectives  such  and  same.  As 
is,  however,  properly  an  adverb.  "  This  is  the  same  as  I  had  "  is  =  "  This 
is  the  same  as  that  which  I  had." 

(vii)  But  is  the  proper  relative  after  a  negative  j  as  "  There  was  no 
man  but  would  have  died  for  her."  Here  hut  =  who  +  not.  (This  is 
like  the  Latin  use  of  quin  =  qui  +  ne). 

INDEFINITE    PRONOUNS. 

16.  An  Indefinite  Pronoun  is  a  pronoun  that  does  not  stand 
in  the  place  of  a  noun  which  is  the  name  for  a  definite  person 
or   thing,  but  is  used  vaguely,  and  without  a  distinct  reference. 

17.  The  chief  Indefinite  Pronouns  are  one,  none;  any; 
other ;  and  some. 

(i)  One  is  the  best  instance  of  an  indefinite  pronoun.  It  is  simply  the 
cardinal  one  used  as  a  pronoun.  In  O.E.  we  used  mem  ;  and  we  still  find 
one  example  in  the  Bible — Zech.  xiii.  5  :  "  Man  taught  me  to  keep  cattle 
from  my  youth."  One,  as  an  indefinite  pronoun,  has  two  peculiarities. 
It  (a)  can  be  put  in  the  possessive  case ;  and  (6)  can  take  a  plural 
form.  Thus  we  can  say  :  (a)  "  One  can  do  what  one  likes  with  one's  own  ; " 
and  (6)  "  I  want  some  big  ones." 

(ii)  None  is  the  negative  of  one.  "  None  think  the  great  unhappy 
but  the  great."  But  none  is  mostly  plural.  No  (the  adjective)  is  a 
short  form  of  none  ;  as  a  is  of  an  ;  and  my  of  mine. 

(iii)  Any  is  derived  from  an,  a  form  of  one.  It  may  be  used  as  an 
adjective  also — either  with  a  singular  or  a  plural  noun.  When  used  as  a 
pronoun,  it  is  generally  pluraL 


28  GRAMMAR  OF   THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

(iv)  Other  is  =  an  ther.  The  ther  is  the  same  as  that  in  either, 
whether;  and  it  always  indicates  that  one  of  two  is  taken  into  the 
mind. 

(v)  Some  is  either  singular  or  plural.  It  is  singular  in  the  phrase 
Some  one  ;  in  all  other  instances,  it  is  a  plural  pronoun. 


ADJECTIVES. 

1.  An  Adjective  is  a  word  that  goes  with  a  noun  to  describe 
or  point  out  the  thing  denoted  by  the  noun — and  hence  to  limit 
the  application  of  the  noun ;  or,  more  simply, — 

Adjectives  are  noun-marking  words. 

(i)  Adjectives  do  not  assert  explicitly,  like  verbs.  They  assert  im- 
plicitly. Hence  they  are  implicit  predicates.  Thus,  if  I  say,  "  I  met 
three  old  men,"  I  make  three  statements  :  (1)  I  met  men  ;  (2)  The  men 
were  old ;  (3)  The  men  were  three  in  number.  But  these  statements 
are  not  explicitly  made. 

(ii)  Adjectives  enlarge  the  content,  but  limit  the  extent  of  the  idea 
expressed  by  the  noun.  Thus  when  we  say  "white  horses,"  we  put  a 
larger  content  into  the  idea  of  horse ;  but,  as  there  are  fewer  white 
horses  than  horses,  we  limit  the  extent  of  the  notion. 

2.  An  adjective  cannot  stand  by  itself.  It  must  have  with 
it  a  noun  either  expressed  or  understood.  In  the  sentence 
"The  good  are  happy,"  persons  is  understood  after  good. 

3.  Adjectives  are  of  four  kinds.  They  are  (i)  Adjectives  of 
Quality ;  (ii)  Adjectives  of  Quantity ;  (iii)  Adjectives  of 
Number ;  (iv)  Demonstrative  Adjectives.  Or  we  may  say, — 
Adjectives  are  divided  into 

ADJECTIVES 

I 

_____  ! __       ,  . 

Qualitative.  Quantitative.  Numbering.  Demonstrative. 

These  four  answer,  respectively,  to  the  questions — 
(i)  Of  what  sort  ?  (ii)  How  much  ?  (iii)  How  many  ?  (iv)  Which  ? 

4.  Qualitative  Adjectives  denote  a  quality  of  the  subject  or 
thing  named  by  the  noun ;  such  as  blue,  white ;  happy,  sad ; 
big,  little. 

(i)  The  word  qualitative  comes  from  the  Lat.  qualis=tot  what  sort, 
(ii)  Most  of  these  adjectives  admit  of  degrees  of  comparison. 


ADJECTIVES.  29 

5.  Quantitative  Adjectives  denote  either  quantity  or  in- 
definite number ;  and  they  can  go  either  (i)  with  the  singular, 
or  (ii)  with  the  plural  of  nouns,  or  (iii)  with  both.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  list : — 

Any.  Certain.  Few.  Much.  Some. 

AIL  Divers.  Little.  No.  Whole. 

Both.  Enough.  Many.  Several 

(i)  We  find  the  phrases  :  Little  need  ;  little  wool ;  much  pleasure  ;  more 
sense;  some  sleep,  etc. 

(ii)  We  find  the  phrases:  AU  men;  any  persons;  both  boys;  several 
pounds,  etc. 

(iii)  We  find  the  phrases:  Any  man  and  any  men;  no  man  and  no 
men;  enough  corn  and  soldiers  enough;  some  boy  and  some  boys,  etc. 

6.  Numbering  or  Numeral  Adjectives  express  the  number  of 
the  things  or  persons  indicated  by  the  noun.  They  are  generally 
divided  into  Cardinal  Numerals  and  Ordinal  Numerate 
But  Ordinal  Numerals  are  in  reality  Demonstrative  Adjectives. 

(i)  Numeral  comes  from  the  Lat.  numerus,  a  number.  Hence  also 
come  numerous,  numerical,  and  number  (the  6  serves  as  a  cushion  between 
the  m  and  the  r). 

(ii)  Cardinal  comes  from  the  Lat.  cardo,  a  hinge. 

(iii)  Ordinal  comes  from  the  Lat.  ordo,  order. 

7.  Demonstrative  Adjectives  are  those  which  are  used  to 
point  out  the  thing  expressed  by  the  noun ;  and,  besides  indi 
eating  a  person  or  thing,  they  also  indicate  a  relation  either  to 
the  speaker  or  to  something  else. 

(i)  Demonstrative  comes  from  the  Lat  demonstro,  I  point  out.    From  the  same 
root  come  monster,  monstrous,  &c 

8.  Demonstrative  Adjectives  are  of  three  kinds  :  (i)  Articles ; 
(ii)  Adjective  Pronouns  (often  so  called)  j  and  (iii)  the  Ordinal 
Numerals. 

(i)  There  are  two  articles  (better  call  them  distinguishing  adjectives) 
in  our  language :  a  and  the.  a  is  a  broken-down  form  of  ane,  the 
northern  form  of  one ;  and  before  a  vowel  or  silent  h  it  retains  the  n. 
In  some  phrases  a  has  its  old  sense  of  one ;  as  in  " twe  of  a  trade  ; "  "all 
of  a  size,"  etc. 

"  An  two  men  ride  on  a  horse,  one  must  ride  behind. " 

Shakespeare  (Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  III.  v.  iQ), 


30  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(ii)  We  must  be  careful  to  distinguish  the  article  a  from  the  broken, 
down  preposition  a  in  the  phrase  "twice  a  week."  This  latter  a  is  a 
fragment  of  on;  and  the  phrase  in  O.E.  was  "tuwa  on  wucan."  Simi- 
larly, the  in  "  the  book  "  is  not  the  same  as  the  in  "  the  more  the  merrier." 
The  latter  is  the  old  ablative  of  thaet ;  and  is  =  by  that. 

(iii)  Adjective  Pronouns  or  Pronominal  Adjectives  are  so  called  be- 
cause they  can  be  used  either  as  adjectives  with  the  noun,  or  as 
pronouns  for  the  noun.  They  are  divided  into  the  following  four 
classes : — 

(a)  Demonstrative  Adjective  Pronouns  —  This,  these  ;  that,  those ; 
yon,  yonder. 

(6)  Interrogative  Adjective  Pronouns — Which  ?  what  ?  whether  (of 
the  two)  ? — as  in  "  whether  side  ? "  (now  an  archaic  use). 

(c)  Distributive  Adjective  Pronouns — Each,  every,  either,  neither. 

(d)  Possessive  Adjective  Pronouns — My,  thy,  his,  her,  etc.  (These 
words  perform  a  double  function.  They  are  adjectives,  because  they 
go  with  a  noun  ;  and  pronouns,  because  they  stand  for  the  noun  or 
name  of  the  person  speaking  or  spoken  of.) 

(iv)  The  Ordinal  Numerals  are  :  First,  second,  third,  etc. 

9.  Some  adjectives  are  used  as  nouns,  and  therefore  take  a 
plural  form.  Thus  we  have  Romans,  Christians,  superiors, 
elders,  ones,  others,  nobles,  etc.  Some  take  the  form  of  the 
possessive  case,  as  either's,  neither's. 

(i)  The  plural  of  one  as  an  adjective  is  two,  three,  etc.  ;  of  one  as  a 
noun,  ones.  Thus  we  can  say,  "  These  are  poor  strawberries,  bring  me 
better  ones."  Other  numeral  adjectives  may  be  used  as  nouns.  Thus 
Wordsworth,  in  one  of  his  shorter  poems,  has — 

' '  The  sun  has  long  been  set ; 

The  stars  are  out  by  twos  and  threes  ; 
The  little  birds  are  piping  yet 
Among  the  bushes  and  trees." 

(ii)  Our  language  is  very  whimsical  in  this  matter.  We  can  say 
Romans  and  Italians ;  but  we  cannot  say  Frenches  and  Dutches.  Milton 
has  (Paradise  Lost,  iii.  438)  Chineses. 


NUMERALS. 

10.  Cardinal  Numerals  are  those  which  indicate  numbers 
alone.  Some  of  them  are  originally  nouns,  as  dozen,  hun- 
dred, thousand,  and  million;  but  these  may  also  be  used  as 
adjectives. 


NUMERALS.  31 

(i)  One  was  in  A.S.  an  or  ane.  The  pronunciation  wun  is  from  a  west- 
ern dialect.  It  is  still  rightly  sounded  in  its  compounds  atone,  alone, 
lonely.     None  and  no  are  the  negatives  of  one  and  o  (  =  an  and  a). 

(ii)  Two,  from  A.S.  twegen  mas. ;  twa  fern.  The  form  twegen  appears 
in  twain  and  twin,  the  g  having  been  absorbed. 

(iii)  Eleven  =  en  (one)  +  lif  (ten).     Twelve  =  twe  (two)  +  lif  (ten). 

(iv)  Thirteen  =  three  +  ten.     The  r  has  shifted  its  place,  as  in  third. 

(v)  Twenty  =  twen  (two)  +  tig  (ten).  Tig  is  a  noun,  meaning  "a  set 
of  ten."     The  guttural  was  lost,  and  it  became  ty. 

(vi)  Score,  from  A.S.  sceran,  to  cut.  Accounts  of  sheep,  cattle,  etc., 
were  kept  by  notches  on  a  stick  ;  and  the  twentieth  notch  was  made 
deeper,  and  was  called  the  cut — the  score. 

11.  Ordinal  Numerals  are  Adjectives  of  Relation  formed 
mostly  from  the  Cardinals.  They  are :  First,  Second,  Third, 
Fourth,  etc. 

(i)  First  (A.S.  fyrst)  is  the  superl.  of  fore,  with  vowel  change, 
(ii)  Second  is  not  Eng.  but  Latin.  The  O.E.  for  second  was  other. 
Second  comes  (through  French)  from  the  Latin,  secundus,  following— 
that  is,  following  the  first.  A  following  or  favourable  breeze  ("  a  wind 
that  follows  fast")  was  called  by  the  Romans  a  "secundus  ventus." 
Secundus  comes  from  Lat.  sequor,  I  follow.  Other  words  from  the 
same  root  are  sequel,  consequence,  etc. 

(iii)  Third,  by  transposition,  from  A.S.  thridda.  A  third  part  was 
called  a  thriding  (where  the  r  keeps  its  right  place)  ;  as  a  fourth  part 
was  a  fourthing  or  farthing.  Thriding  was  gradually  changed  into  Riding, 
one  of  the  three  parts  into  which  Yorkshire  was  divided. 

(iv)  In  eigh-th,  as  in  eigh-teen,  a  t  has  vanished,  though  still  sounded. 


THE    INFLEXION    OF    ADJECTIVES. 

12.  The  modern  English  adjective  has  lost  all  its  old  inflexions 
for  gender  and  case,  and  retains  only  two  for  number.  These 
two  are  these  (the  plural  of  this)  and  those  (the  plural  of  that). 

(i)  The  older  plural  was  thlse — pronounced  these,  and  then  so  spelled. 
In  this  instance,  the  spelling,  as  so  seldom  happens,  has  followed  the 
pronunciation.  In  general  in  the  English  language,  the  spelling  and  the 
pronunciation  keep  quite  apart,  and  have  no  influence  on  each  other. 

(ii)  Those  was  the  oldest  plural  of  this,  but  in  the  14th  century  it 
came  to  be  accepted  as  the  plural  of  that. 


32  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

13.  Most  adjectives  are  now  inflected  for  purposes  of  com- 
parison only. 

14.  There  are  three  Degrees  of  Comparison :  the  Posi- 
tive ;  the  Comparative ;  and  the  Superlative. 

(i)  The  word  degree  comes  from  the  French  degri,  which  itself  comes 
from  the  Latin  gradus,  a  step.  From  the  same  root  come  grade,  grad- 
ual, degrade,  etc. 

15.  The  Positive  Degree  is  the  simple  form  of  the  adjec- 
tive. 

16.  The  Comparative  Degree  is  that  form  of  the  adjective 
which  shows  that  the  quality  it  expresses  has  been  raised  one 
step  or  degree  higher.  Thus  we  say  sharp,  sharper;  cold, 
colder;  brave,  braver.  The  comparative  degree  brings  together 
only  two  ideas.  Thus  we  may  speak  of  "  the  taller  of  the  two," 
but  not  "  of  the  three." 

Comparative  comes  from  the  Lat.  comparo,  I  bring  together. 

17.  The  Comparative  degree  is  formed  in  two  ways :  either 
(i)  by  adding  er  to  the  positive ;  or  (ii)  if  the  adjective  has  more 
than  two  syllables,  and  in  the  case  of  most  dissyllabic  adjectives 
ending  in  a  consonant,  with  the  help  of  the  adverb  more. 

Rules  :  I.  A  silent  e  is  dropped  ;  as  brave,  braver. 

II.  A  y  after  a  consonant  is  changed  into  i  before  er,  etc.  ;  as 
happy,  happier. 

III.  A  final  consonant  after  a  short  vowel  is  doubled ;  as  red, 
redder;  cruel,  crueller. 

IV.  In  choosing  between  er  and  more,  sound  and  custom  seem  to 
be  the  safest  guides.  Thus  we  should  not  say  selecter,  but  more  select ; 
but  pleasanter  is  equally  as  good  as  more  pleasant.  Carlylehas  beauti- 
fullest,  etc.  ;  but  his  is  not  an  example  to  be  followed. 

18.  The  Superlative  Degree  is  that  form  of  the  adjective 
which  shows  that  the  quality  it  expresses  has  been  raised  to  the 
highest  degree.  The  superlative  degree  requires  that  three 
things,  or  more,  be  compared.  Thus  "He  is  the  tallest  of  the 
two  "  would  be  incorrect. 

Superlative  comes  from  the  Lat.  superlativus,  lifting  up  above. 


ADJECTIVES. 


33 


19.  The  Superlative  degree  is  formed  in  two  ways  :  either  (i) 
by  adding  est  to  the  positive  ;  or  (ii)  if  the  adjective  has  more 
than  two  syllables,  and  in  the  case  of  most  adjectives  of  two 
syllables  ending  in  a  consonant,  by  using  the  adverb  most. 

(i)  Happiest,     (ii)  Most  recent;  most  beautiful. 

20.  Some  adjectives,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  ideas  they 
express,  do  not  admit  of  comparison.  Such  are  golden,  wooden; 
left,  right;  square,  triangular;  weekly,  monthly;  eternal, per- 
petual, etc. 

21.  The  most  frequently  used  adjectives  have  irregular 
comparisons.     The  following  is  a  list : — 


Pos- 

Com- 

Super- 

Pos- 

Com- 

StrPER- 

itive. 

parative. 

lative. 

itive. 

parative. 

LATIVE. 

Bad 

worse 

worst. 

Late 

later 

latest. 

Evil 

worse 

worst. 

Late 

latter 

last. 

111 

worse 

worst. 

Little 

less 

least. 

Far 

farther 

farthest. 

Many 

more 

most. 

[Forth] 

further 

furthest. 

Much 

more 

most. 

Fore 

former 

foremost. 

Nigh 

nigher 

nighest  (next). 

Good 

better 

best. 

Old 

older 

oldest. 

Hind 

hinder 

hindmost. 

Old 

elder 

eldest 

[Rathe] 


rather 


[rathest.] 


(i)  Worse  and  worst  come,  not  from  bad,  but  from  the  root  rears,  to 
twist  (  War  comes  from  the  same  root. )  The  s  in  worse  is  a  part  of  the 
root ;  and  the  full  comparative  is  really  worser,  which  was  used  in  the 
16th  century  (Shakespeare,  "  Hamlet,"  III.  iv.  157).    Worst  =  worsest. 

(ii)  The  th.  in  farther  is  intrusive.  Farther  is  formed  on  a  false  anal- 
ogy with  further ;  as  could  (from  can)  is  with  would  (from  will).  Far- 
ther is  used  of  progression  in  space ;  further,  of  progression  in  reasoning. 

(iii)  Former  was  in  A.S.  forma  (  =  first).  It  is  a  comparative  sense  made 
from  an  old  superlative. 

(iv)  Better  comes  from  A.S.  bet = good— a,  root  which  was  found  in 
betan,  to  make  good,  and  in  the  phrase  to  boot  =  "  to  the  good." 

(v)  Later  and  latest  refer  to  time  ;  latter  and  last  to  position  in 
space  or  in  a  series.  Last  is  as  by  assimilation  from  latst ;  as  best  is  from 
betst. 

(vi)  Less  does  not  come  from  the  lit  in  little ;  but  from  A.S.  laes-sa, 
from  the  base  las,  weak.     Least  =  laesest. 

(vii)  Nighest  is  contracted  into  next ;  as  highest  was  into  hext.  Thus 
gh  +  s=k  +  s=x. 


34  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(viii)  We  say  "  the  oldest  man  that  ever  lived, "  and  "  the  eldeat  of 
the  family."  Older  and  oldest  refer  to  mere  number  ;  elder  and  eldest 
to  a  family  or  corporate  group. 

(ix)  Rathe  is  still  found  in  poetry.  Milton  has  "  the  rathe  primrose, 
that  forsaken  dies  ; "  and  Coleridge,  "  twin  buds  too  rathe  to  bear  the 
winter's  unkind  air."  The  Irish  pronunciation  rayther  is  the  old  Eng- 
lish pronunciation. 

(x)  Hind  is  used  as  an  adjective  in  the  phrase  "  the  hind  wheels." 

22.   The  following  are  defective  comparatives  and  superla- 
tives : — 


Positive. 

Comparative. 

Superlative. 

[Aft] 

after 



[In] 

inner 

innermost. 

[Out] 

outer  (or  utter) 

outermost  (or  uttermost). 



nether 

nethermost. 



over 



[Up] 

upper 

uppermost. 

(i)  After,  as  an  adjective,  is  found  in  aftermath,  afterthought,  etc. 

(ii)  In  is  used  as  an  adjective  in  the  word  in- side;  and  as  a  noun  in 
the  phrase  "  the  ins  and  outs  "  of  a  question. 

(iii)  In  the  inns  of  law,  the  utter-bar  (outer-bar)  is  opposed  to  the 
Inner-bar. 

(iv)  The  neth  in  nether  is  the  same  as  the  neath  in  beneath. 

(v)  The  ov  in  over  is  the  ore  in  above,  and  is  a  dialectic  form  of  up. 
It  is  still  found  in  such  names  as  Over  Leigh  in  Cheshire,  and  Over 
Darwen  in  Lancashire. 

(vi)  Hindmost,  uttermost,  are  not  compounds  of  most,  but  are 
double  superlatives.  There  was  an  old  superlative  ending  ema,  which 
we  see  in  Lat.  extremus,  supremus,  etc.  It  was  forgotten  that  this  was 
a  superlative,  and  est  or  ost  was  added.  Thus  we  had  hindema,  mid- 
ema~    These  afterwards  became  hindmost  and  midmost. 


THE    VERB. 

1.  The  Verb  is  that  "part  of  speech"  by  means  of  which 
we  make  an  assertion. 

It  is  the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  speech. 

(i)  The  word  verb  comes  from  the  Lat.  verbum,  a  word.  It  is  so 
called  because  it  is  the  word  in  a  sentence.  If  we  leave  the  verb  out 
of  a  sentence,  all  the  other  words  become  mere  nonsense.     Thus  we  <*an 


THE   VERB. 


35 


say,  "  I  saw  him  cross  the  bridge."     Leave  out  taw,  and  the  other  words 
have  no  meaning  whatever. 

(ii)  A  verb  has  sometimes  been  called  a  telling  word,  and  this  is  a 
good  and  simple  definition  for  young  learners. 

THE    CLASSIFICATION    OF    VERBS. 

2.  Verbs  are  divided  into  two  classes  —  Transitive  and 
Intransitive. 

3.  A  Transitive  Verb  denotes  an  action  or  feeling  which, 
as  it  were,  passes  over  from  the  doer  of  the  action  to  the 
object  of  it.  "  The  boy  broke  the  stick  j "  "  he  felled  the 
tree;"  "he  hates  walking." 

In  these  sentences  we  are  able  to  think  of  the  action  of  breaking  and 
felling  as  passing  over  to  the  stick  and  the  tree. 

Transitive  comes  from  the  Lat.  verb  transvre,  to  pass  over. 

The  more  correct  definition  is  this  : — 

A  Transitive  Verb  is  a  verb  that  requires  an  object. 

This  definition  covers  the  instances  of  have,  own,  possess,  inherit,  etc., 
as  well  as  break,  strike,  fell,  etc. 

4.  An  Intransitive  Verb  denotes  a  state,  feeling,  or  action 
which  does  not  pass  over,  but  which  terminates  in  the  doer  oi 
agent.     "  He  sleeps  ; "  "  she  walks ; "  "  the  grass  grows." 

5.  There  is,  in  general,  nothing  in  the  look  or  appearance 
of  the  verb  which  will  enable  us  to  tell  whether  it  is  transitive 
or  intransitive.  A  transitive  verb  may  be  used  intransitively ; 
an  intransitive  verb,  transitively.  In  a  few  verbs  we  possess 
a  causative  form.     Thus  we  have  : — 


Intransitive. 

Causative 

Intransitive. 

Causative. 

Bite1 

Bait. 

Quail 

Quell 

Deem1 

Doom  (verb). 

Quoth 

Bequeathe. 

Drink  1 

Drench. 

Rise 

Raise. 

Fall 

Fell. 

Sit 

Set. 

Lie 

Lay. 

Watch1 

Wake. 

1  These  are  also  used  transitively. 

The    following    exceptional    usages    should    be    diligently 
noted: — 

L  Intransitive  verbs  may  be  used  transitively.     Thus — 
|i)  (a)  He  walked  to  London.  (b)  He  walked  his  horse, 

(a)  The  eagle  flew,  (6)  The  boy  flew  hia  kite. 


36  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(ii)  When  the  intransitive  verb   is  compounded  with  a  pre- 
position either  (i)  separable,  or  (ii)  inseparable. 

(i)  (a)  He  laughed.  (6)  He  laughed-at  me. 

(ii)  (a)  He  came.  (o)  He  overcame  the  enemy, 

(iii)  (a)  He  spoke.  (o)  He  bespoke  a  pair  of  boots. 

Such  verbs  are  sometimes  called  "  Prepositional  Verbs." 

II.  Transitive  verbs  may  be  used  intransitively — 
(i)  With  the  pronoun  itself  understood  : — 

(a)  He  broke  the  dish.  (6)  The  sea  breaks  on  the  rocks. 

(a)  She  shut  the  door.  (o)  The  door  shut  suddenly, 

(a)  They  moved  the  table.  (6)  The  table  moved. 

(ii)  When  the  verb  describes  a  fact  perceived  by  the  senses : — 

(a)  He  cut  the  beef.  (6)  The  beef  cuts  tough, 

(a)  He  sold  the  books.  (o)  The  books  sell  well, 

(a)  She  smells  the  rose.  (6)  The  rose  smells  sweet. 

The  following  is  a  tabular  view  of  the 

KINDS    OF  VEKBS. 


I  I 

INTRANSITIVE.  TRANSITIVE. 

I 1 

I  1  I  I 

Of  State.  Of  action.  Active.  Passive. 

(Sleep.)  (Bun.)  (Wound.)  (Be  wounded.) 


THE    INFLEXIONS    OF   VERBS. 

6.  Verbs  are  changed  or  modified  for  Voice',  Mood,  Tense, 
Number,  and  Person.  These  changes  are  expressed,  partly  by 
inflexion,  and  partly  by  the  use  of  auxiliary  verbs. 

(i)  A  verb  is  an  auxiliary  verb  (from  Lat.  auxilium,  aid)  when  its 
own  full  and  real  meaning  drops  out  of  sight,  and  it  aids  or  helps  the 
verb  to  which  it  is  attached  to  express  its  meaning.  Thus  we  say,  "  He 
works  hard  that  he  may  gain  the  prize  ;  "  and  here  may  has  not  its  old 
meaning  of  power,  or  its  present  meaning  of  permission.     But — 

(ii)  If  we  say  "  He  may  go,"  here  may  is  not  used  as  an  auxiliary t 
but  is  a  notional  verb,  with  its  full  mean  in* ;  and  the  sentence  is  = 
"  He  has  leave  to  go." 


THE    VEKii.  37 


Voice. 

7.  Voice  is  that  form  of  the  Verb  by  which  we  show 
whether  the  subject  of  the  statement  denotes  the  doer  of  the 
action,  or  the  object  of  the  action,  expressed  by  the  verb. 

8.  There  are  two  Voices  :  the  Active  Voice,  and  the  Passive 
Voice. 

(i)  When  a  verb  is  used  in  the  active  voice, 

the  subject  of  the  sentence  stands  for 
the  doer  of  the  action.     "  He  killed  the  mouse." 
(ii)  When  a  verb  is  in  the  passive  voice,    . 

the  subject  of  the  sentence  stands  for 

the  object  of  the  action.     "  The  mouse  was  killed." 

Or  we  may   say  that,   in   the    passive  voice 
the  grammatical  subject  denotes  the  real 
object, 
(iii)  There  is  in  English  a  kind  of  middle  voice.     Thus  we  can  say, 
"He  opened  the   door"   (active);   "The  door  was  opened"  (passive); 
"  The  door  opened  "  (middle).     In  the  same  way  we  have,  "  This  wood 
cuts  easily  ; "  "  Honey  tastes  sweet ; "  "  The  book  sold  well,"  etc. 

9.  An  Intransitive  Verb,  as  it  can  have  no  direct  object, 
cannot  be  used  in  the  passive  voice.  But,  as  we  have  seen, 
we  can  make  an  intransitive  into  a  transitive  verb  by  adding 
a  preposition ;  and  hence  we  can  say  : — 

Active.  Passive. 

(a)  They  laughed  at  him.  (6)  He  was  laughed  at  by  them. 

(a)  The  general  spoke  to  him.       (6)  He  was  spoken  to  by  the  general 

10.  In  changing  a  verb  in  the  active  voice  into  the  passive, 
we  may  make  either  (i)  the  direct  or  (ii)  the  indirect  object 
into  the  subject  of  the  passive  verb. 

Active.  Passive. 

1.  They  offered  her  a  chair.  (i)  A  chair  was  offered  her. 

(ii)  She  was  offered  a  chair. 

2.  They  showed  him  the  house.  (i)  The  house  was  shown  him. 

(ii)  He  was  Bhown  the  house. 

3.  I  promised  the  boy  a  coat.  (i)  A  coat  was  promised  the  boy. 

(ii)  The  boy  was  promised  a  coat. 

The  object  after  the  passive  verb  is  not  the  real  object  of  that  verb,  for 
a  passive  verb  cannot  rightly  take  an  object.  It  is  Itft  over,  as  it  were,  from  the 
active  verb,  and  is  hence  sometimes  called  a  Retained  or  Residuary  Object. 


38  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

11.  The  passive  voice  of  a  verb  is  formed  by  using  a  pan. 
of  the  verb  to  be  and  the  past  participle  of  the  verb.     Thus 

we  say — 

Active.  Passive.  Active.         ^  Passive. 

I  beat.         I  am  beaten.         I  have  beaten.         I  have  been  beaten. 

(i)  Some  intransitive  verbs  form  their  perfect  tenses  by  means  of  the 
verb  to  be  and  their  past  participle,  as  "  I  am  come  ; "  "  He  is  gone." 
But  the  meaning  here  is  quite  different.  There  is  no  mark  of  anything 
done  to  the  subject  of  the  verb. 

(ii)  Shakespeare  has  the  phrases  :  is  rim ;  is  arrived ;  are  marched 
forth ;  is  entered  into  ;  is  stolen  away. 

Mood. 

12.  The  Mood  of  a  verb  is  the  manner  in  which  the  state- 
ment made  by  the  verb  is  presented  to  the  mind.  Is  a 
statement  made  directly?  Is  a  command  given1?  Is  a  state- 
ment subjoined  to  another?  All  these  are  different  moods  or 
modes.  There  are  four  moods  :  the  Indicative ;  the  Impera- 
tive ;  the  Subjunctive ;  and  the  Infinitive.      ■* 

(i)  Indicative  comes  from  the  Lat.  indicare,  to  point  out. 

(ii)  Imperative  comes  from  the  Lat.  imperare,  to  command.  Hence 
also  emperor,  empress,  etc.  (through  French). 

(iii)  Subjunctive  comes  from  Lat.  subjunge're,  to  join  on  to. 

(iv)  Infinitive  comes  from  Lat.  infinltus,  unlimited  ;  because  the  verb 
in  this  mood  is  not  limited  by  person  or  by  number. 

13.  The  Indicative  Mood  makes  a  direct  assertion,  or  puts 
a  question  in  a  direct  manner.  Thus  we  say  :  "  John  is  ill ;  " 
"Is  John  ill ?" 

14.  The  Imperative  Mood  is  the  mood  of  command, 
request,  or  entreaty.  Thus  we  say  :  "  Go  !  "  "  Give  me  the 
book,  please  ;  "  "Do  come  back  ! " 

(i)  The  Imperative  Mood  is  the  simple  form  of  the  verb  without  any 
inflexion. 

(ii)  It  has  in  reality  only  one  person — the  second. 

15.  The  Subjunctive  Mood  is  that  form  of  the  verb  wh^h 
is  used   mainly  in   a  sentence    subjoined   to    a   principal 


THE  VERB.  39 

sentence, — and  which  does  not  express  a  fact  directly,  but 
only  the  relation  of  a  fact  to  the  mind  of  the  speaker. 
Most  often  it  expresses  both  doubt  and  futurity.  Thus  we 
say :  (i)  "0  that  he  were  here ! "  (ii)  "  Love  not  sleep,  lest 
thou  come  to  poverty."  (iii)  "Whoever  he  be,  he  cannot  be 
a  good  man." 

(i)  In  the  first  sentence,  the  person  is  not  here. 

(ii)  In  the  second,  the  person  spoken  to  has  not  come  to  poverty  ; 
but  he  may. 

(iii)  In  the  third,  we  do  not  know  who  the  person  really  is. 

(iv)  The  Subjunctive  Mood  is  rapidly  dying  out  of  use  in  modern 
English. 

16.  The  Infinitive  Mood  is  that  form  of  the  verb  which 
has  no  reference  to  any  agent,  and  is  therefore  unlimited  by 
perstm,  or  by  number.     It  is  the  verb  itself,  pure  and  simple. 

(i)  The  preposition  to  is  not  an  essential  part  nor  a  necessary  sign  of 
the  infinitive.  The  oldest  sign  of  it  was  the  ending  in  an.  After  may, 
can,  shall,  will,  must,  bid,  dare,  do,  let,  make,  hear,  see,  feel,  need,  the 
simple  infinitive,  without  to,  is  still  uted. 

(ii)  The  Infinitive  is  really  a  noun,  and  it  may  be  (a)  either  in  the 
nominative  or  (6)  in  the  obj.  case.  Thus  we  have  :  (a)  "  To  err  is 
human  ;  to  forgive,  divine  ; "  and  (6)  "  I  wish  to  go." 

(iii)  In  0.  E.  it  was  partly  declined  ;  and  the  dative  case  ended 
in  anne  or  enne.  Then  to  was  placed  before  this  dative,  to  indicate 
purpose.  Thus  we  find,  "  The  sower  went  out  to  sow,"  when,  in  O.E. 
to  sow  was  to  sawenne.  This,  which  is  now  called  the  gerundial  infinitive, 
has  become  very  common  in  English.  Thus  we  have,  "I  came  to  see 
you  ;"  "  A  house  to  let."  "To  hear  him  (=  on  hearing  him)  talk,  you 
would  think  he  was  worth  millions." 

(iv)  We  must  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  (a)  the  pure  Infinitive 
and  (b)  the  gerundial  Infinitive.     Thus  we  say — 

(a)  I  want  to  see  him.     (6)  I  went  to  see  him.     The  latter  is  the 
gerundial  infinitive — that  is,  the  old  dative. 

(c)  The  gerundial  infinitive  is  attached  (1)  to  a  noun ;  and  (2)  to  an 
adjective.     Thus  we  have  such  phrases  as — 

(1)  Bread  to  eat ;  water  to  drink  ;  a  house  to  sell. 

(2)  Wonderful  to  relate  ;  quick  to  take  offence ;  eager  to  go. 

17.  A  Gerund  is  a  noun  formed  from  a  verb  by  the  addition 
of  ing.     It  may  be  either  (i)  a  subject ;  or  (ii)  an  object ;  or 


40 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


(iii)  it  may  be  governed  by  a  preposition.  It  has  two  functions ; 
that  of  a  noun,  and  that  of  a  verb — that  is,  it  is  itself  a  noun, 
and  it  has  the  governing  power  of  a  verb. 

(i)  Reading  books  is  pleasant,  (ii)  I  like  reading  books,  (iii)  He 
got  off  by  crossing  the  river.  In  this  last  sentence,  crossing  is  a  noun 
in  relation  to  by,  and  a  verb  in  relation  to  river. 

The  chief  modern  distinction  between  a  gerund  and  a  verbal  noun  is 
that  the  gerund  (if  of  a  transitive  verb)  governs  an  object ;  the  verbal 
noun  cannot  govern  an  object  under  any  circumstances,  and  it  is 
generally  preceded  by  "the"  and  followed  by  "  of." 

(ii)  The  Gerund  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  three  other 
kinds  of  words  :  (a)  from  the  verbal  noun,  which  used  to  end  in  ung ; 
(b)  from  the  present  participle ;  and  (c)  from  the  infinitive  with  to. 
The  following  are  examples  : — 


(a)  "Forty  and  six  years  was  this  tem- 
ple in  building."  Here  building  is  a 
verbal  noun. 

(b)  "Dreaming  as  he  went  along,  he 
fell  into  the  brook."  Here  dreaming  is 
an  adjective  agreeing  with  he,  and  is  there- 
fore a  participle. 

(c)  "To  write  is  quite  easy,  when  one 
has  a  good  pen."  Here  to  write  is  a  pres- 
ent infinitive,  and  is  the  nominative  to  is. 
(It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  oldest 
infinitive  had  no  to,  and  that  it  still  exists 
in  this  pure  form  in  such  lines  as  "  Better 
dwell  in  the  midst  of  alarms,  than  reign 
in  this  horrible  place." 


(a)  "He  was  punished  for  robbing  the 
orchard."  Here  robbing  is  a  gerund,  be- 
cause it  is  a  noun  and  also  governs  a  noun. 

(b)  "  He  was  tired  of  dreaming  such 
dreams."  Here  dreaming  is  a  gerund, 
because  it  is  a  noun  and  governs  a  noun. 

(c)  "  He  comes  here  to  write  his  letters.' 
Here  to  write  is  the  gerundial  infinitive ; 
it  is  in  the  dative  case ;  and  the  O.E. 
form  was  to  writanne.  Here  the  to  has 
a  distinct  function.  This  is  the  so- 
called  "infinitive  of  purpose;"  but  it  is 
a  true  gerund.  In  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, when  the  sense  of  the  to  was  weak- 
ened, it  took  a  for, — ' '  What  went  ye  out 
for  to  see?" 


(iii)  The  following  three  words  in  ing  have  each  a  special  function  :— 
(a)  He  is  reading  about  the  passing  of  Arthur  (verbal  noun). 
(&)  And  Arthur,  passing  thence  (participle),  rode  to  the  wood. 
(c)  This  is  only  good  for  passing  the  time  (gerund). 


18.  A  Participle  is  a  verbal  adjective.  There  are  two  par- 
ticiples :  the  Present  Active  and  the  Perfect  Passive.  The 
former  (i)  has  two  functions  :  that  of  an  adjective  and  that 
of  a  verb.    The  latter  (ii)  has  only  the  function  of  an  adjective. 

(i)  "  Hearing  the  noise,  the  porter  ran  to  the  gate."    In  this  sentence, 
hearing  is  an  adjective  qualifying  porter,  and  a  verb  governing  noise. 

(ii)  Defeated  and  discouraged,  the  enemy  surrendered. 

t&  1.  We  must  be  very  careful  to  distinguish  between  [a)  the  gerund  in 
ing,  and  (6)  the  participle  in  ing.     Thus  running  in  a  "  running  stream  " 


THE   VERB.  41 

is  an  adjective,  and  therefore  a  participle.     In  the  sentence,  "he  was  hurt 
in  running  the  race,"  it  is  a  noun,  and  therefore  a  gerund.     Milton  says — 

"  And  ever,  against  eating  cares, 
Lap  me  in  soft  Lydian  airs  ! " 

Here  eating  is  an  adjective,  and  means  fretting ;  and  it  is  therefore  a 
participle.  But  if  it  had  meant  cares  about  eating,  eating  would  have 
been  a  noun,  and  therefore  a  gerund.  So  a  fishing-rod  is  not  a  rod 
that  fishes ;  a  frying-pan  is  not  a  pan  that  fries  ;  a  walking-stick  is  not 
a  stick  that  walks.  The  rod  is  a  rod  for  fishing ;  the  pan,  a  pan  for 
frying;  the  stick,  a  stick  for  walking;  and  therefore  fishing,  frying, 
and  walking  are  all  gerunds. 

2.  The  word  participle  comes  from  Lat.  participare,  to  partake  of. 
The  participle  partakes  of  the  nature  of  the  verb.  (Hence  also  par- 
ticipate.) 

Tense. 

19.  Tense  is  the  form  which  the  verb  takes  to  indicate  time. 
There  are,  in  human  life,  three  times :  past,  present,  and 
future.  Hence  there  are  in  a  verb  three  chief  tenses :  Past, 
Present,  and  Future.  These  may  be  represented  on  a 
straight  line : — 

TENSES. 

i i 1 

Past.  Present.  Future. 

I  wrote.  I  write.  I  shall  write. 

(i)  The  word  tense  comes  to  us  from  the  French  temps,  which  is  from 
the  Lat.  tempus,  time.  Hence  also  temporal,  temporary,  etc.  (The  modern 
French  word  is  temps;  the  old  French  word  was  tens.) 

20.  The  tenses  of  an  English  verb  give  not  only  the  time  of 
an  action  or  event,  but  also  the  state  or  condition  of  that 
action  or  event  This  state  may  be  complete  or  incomplete, 
or  neither — that  is,  it  is  left  indefinite.  These  states  are 
oftener  called  perfect,  imperfect,  and  indefinite.  The  con- 
dition, then,  of  an  action  as  expressed  by  a  verb,  or  the  con- 
dition of  the  tense  of  a  verb,  may  be  of  three  kinds.  It  may 
be— 

(i)  Complete  or  Perfect,  as  Written. 

(ii)  Incomplete  or  Imperfect,  as     Writing, 
(iii)  Indefinite,  as  Write. 


42  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

We  now  have  therefore — 

TENSES. 
I 

Past.  Present.  Future. 

I  I  I 


1  III  111. 

Perfect.    Indef.    Imperf.  Perfect.    Indef.    Imperf.  Perfect.    Indef.    Imperf. 

Had     Wrote.      Was  Have     Write.       Am  Shall      Shall    Shall  be 

written.  writing.  written.  writing.  have      write,  writing. 

written. 

(i)  The  only  tense  in  our  language  that  is  formed  by  inflexion  is  the 
past  indefinite.     All  the  others  are  formed  by  the  aid  of  auxiliaries.   . 
(a)  The  imperfect  tenses   are  formed  by  be  +  the  imperfect 

participle. 
(6)  The  perfect  tenses  are  formed  by  have  +  the  perfect  par- 
ticiple. 

(ii)  Besides  had  written,  have  written,  and  will  have  written,  we  can  say 
had  been  writing,  have  been  writing,  and  will  have  been  writing.  These 
are  sometimes  called  Past  Perfect  (or  Pluperfect)  Continuous,  Perfect 
Continuous,  and  Future  Perfect  Continuous. 

(hi)  "  I  do  write,"  "  I  did  write,"  are  called  Emphatic  forms. 


Number. 

21.  Verbs  are  modified  for  Number.  There  are  in  verbs 
two  numbers  :  (i)  the  Singular  and  (ii)  the  Plural. 

(i)  "We  say,  "  He  writes  "  (with  the  ending  s). 

(ii)  We  say,  "  They  write  "  (with  no  inflectional  ending  at  all). 

Person. 

22.  Verbs  are  modified  for  Person — that  is,  the  form  of  the 
verb  is  changed  to  suit  (i)  the  first  person,  (ii)  the  second 
person,  or  (iii)  the  third  person. 

(i)  "  I  write."     (ii)  "Thou  writest."     (iii)  "  He  writes." 

Conjugation. 

23.  Conjugation  is  the  name  given  to  the  sum-total  of  all  the 
inflexions  and  combinations  of  the  parts  of  a  verb. 

The  word  conjugate  comes  from  the  Lat.  conjugare,  to  bind  together. 


THE  VEKB.  43 

24.  There  are  two  conjugations  in  English — the  Strong  and 
the  Weak.  Hence  we  have :  (i)  verbs  of  the  Strong  Con- 
jugation, and  (ii)  verbs  of  the  Weak  Conjugation,  which 
are  more  usually  called  Strong  Verbs  and  Weak  Verbs. 
These  verbs  are  distinguished  from  each  other  by  their  way 
of  forming  their  past  tenses. 

25.  The  past  tense  of  any  verb  determines  to  which  of  these 
classes  it  belongs  ;  and  that  by  a  twofold  test — one  positive  and 
one  negative. 

26.  (i)  The  positive  test  for  the  past  of  a  Strong  Verb 
is  that  it  changes  the  vowel  of  the  present,  (ii)  The  nega- 
tive test  is  that  it  never  adds  anything  to  the  present  to  make 
its  past  tense. 

(i)  Thus  we  say  write,  wrote,  and  change  the  vowel, 
(ii)  But  in  wrote  there  is  nothing  added  to  write. 

27.  (i)  The  positive  test  for  the  past  tense  of  a  Weak  Verb 
is  that  d  or  t  is  added  to  the  present,  (ii)  The  negative  test  is 
that  the  root-vowel  of  the  present  is  generally  not  changed. 

(i)  There  are  some  exceptions  to  this  latter  statement.  Thus  tell, 
told ;  buy,  bought ;  sell,  sold,  are  weak  verbs.  The  change  in  the  vowel 
does  not  spring  from  the  same  cause  as  the  change  in  strong  verba. 
Hence — 

(ii)  It  is  as  well  to  keep  entirely  to  the  positive  test  in  the  case  of 
weak  verbs.  However  "  strong  "  or  "  irregular  "  may  seem  to  be  the 
verbs  teach,  taught ;  seek,  sought ;  say,  said,  we  know  that  they  are 
weak,  because  they  add  a  d  or  a  t  for  the  past  tense. 

(iii)  In  many  weak  verbs  there  seems  to  be  both  a  change  of  vowel 
and  alsp  an  absence  of  any  addition.  Hence  they  look  very  like  strong 
verbs.  In  fact,  the  long  vowel  of  the  present  is  made  short  in  the  past. 
Thus  we  find  meet,  met ;  feed,  fed.  But  these  verbs  are  not  strong. 
The  old  past  was  mette  and  fedde  ;  and  all  that  has  happened  is  that 
they  have  lost  the  old  inflexions  te  and  de.  It  was  owing  to  the  addi- 
tion of  another  syllable  that  the  original  long  vowel  of  the  verb  was 
shortened.     Compare  nation,  national,  please,  pleasure. 

(iv)  The  past  or  passive  participle  of  strong  verbs  had  the  suffix  en 
and  the  prefix  ge.  The  suffix  has  now  disappeared  from  many  strong 
verbs,  and  the  prefix  from  all.  But  ge,  which  in  Chaucer's  time  had 
been  refined  into  a  y  (as  in  yeomen,  yronnen),  is  retained  still  in  that 
form  in  the  one  word  yclept.  Milton's  use  of  it  in  star-y -pointing  is  a 
mistake. 


44 


GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


28.   The  following  is  an 


ALPHABETICAL   LIST   OF  STRONG  VERBS. 

(All  strong  verbs  except  those  which  have  a  prefix  are  monosyllabic.) 
The  forms  in  italics  are  weak. 


Pres. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Prcs. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Abide 

abode 

abode. 

Fly 

flew 

flown. 

Arise 

arose 

arisen. 

Forbear 

forbore 

forborne. 

Awake 

awoke 

awoke 

Forget 

forgot 

forgotten. 

{awaked)      {awaked). 

Forsake 

forsook 

forsaken. 

Bear 

bore 

born. 

Freeze 

froze 

frozen. 

(bring  forth) 

Get 

got 

got,  gotten. 

Bear 

bore 

borne. 

Give 

gave 

given. 

(carry) 

Go 

went 

gone. 

Beat 

beat 

beaten. 

Grind 

ground 

ground. 

Begin 

began 

begun. 

Grow 

grew 

grown. 

Behold 

beheld 

beheld  (be- 

Hang 

h.urxg{hanged)h\mg(hanged). 

holden). 

Hide 

hid 

hidden,  hid. 

Bid 

bade,  bid 

bidden,  bid. 

Hold 

held 

held. 

Bind 

bound 

bound. 

Know 

knew 

known. 

Bite 

bit 

bitten,  bit. 

Lie 

lay 

lain. 

Blow 

blew 

blown. 

Ride 

rode 

ridden. 

Break 

broke 

broken. 

Ring 

rang 

rung. 

Burst 

burst 

burst. 

Rise 

rose 

risen. 

Chide 

chid 

chidden, 

Run 

ran 

run. 

chid. 

See 

saw 

seen. 

Choose 

chose 

chosen. 

Seethe 

sod{seethed)  sodden. 

Cleave 

clove 

cloven. 

Shake 

shook 

shaken. 

(split) 

Shine 

shone 

shone. 

Climb 

clomb 

{climbed). 

Shoot 

shot 

shot. 

Cling 

clung 

clung. 

Shrink 

shrank 

shrunk. 

Come 

came 

come. 

Sing 

sang 

sung. 

Crow 

crew 

crown  {obsol.). 

Sink 

sank 

sunk* 

{crowed 

{crowed). 

sunken. 

Dig 

dug 

dug. 

Sit 

sat 

sat. 

Do 

did 

done. 

Slay 

slew 

slain. 

Draw 

drew 

drawn. 

Slide 

slid 

slid. 

Drink 

drank 

drunk, 

Sling 

slung 

slung. 

drunken. 

Slink 

slunk 

slunk. 

Drive 

drove 

driven. 

Smite 

smote 

smitten. 

Eat 

ate 

eaten. 

Speak 

spoke 

spoken. 

Fall 

fell 

fallen. 

Spin 

spun 

spun. 

Fight 

fought 

fought. 

Spring 

sprang 

sprung. 

Find 

found 

found. 

Stand 

stood 

stood. 

Fling 

flung 

flung. 

Stave 

stove 

staved,    stove 

THE 

VERB. 

41 

Pre*. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Pre*. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Steal 

stole 

stolen. 

Thrive 

throve 

thriven 

Stick 

stuck,1 

stuck. 

{thrived) 

{thrived). 

Sting 

stung 

stung. 

Throw 

threw 

thrown. 

Stink 

stank 

stunk. 

Tread 

trod 

trodden, 

Stride 

strode 

stridden. 

trod. 

Strike 

struck 

struck. 

Wake 

woke 

{waked). 

String 

strung 

strung. 

{waked) 

Strive 

strove 

striven. 

Wear 

wore 

worn. 

Swear 

swore 

sworn. 

Weave 

wove 

woven. 

Swim 

swam 

swum. 

Win 

won 

won. 

Swing 

swung 

swung. 

Wind 

wound 

wound. 

Take 

took 

taken. 

Wring 

wrung 

wrung. 

Tear 

tore 

torn. 

Write 

wrote 

written. 

It  is  well  for  the  young  learner  to  examine  the  above  verbs 
closely,  and  to  make  a  classification  of  them  for  his  own  use. 
The  following  are  a  few  suggestions  towards  this  task  : — 

(i)  Collect  verbs  with  vowels  a,  e,  a ;  like  fall,  fell,  fallen, 
(ii)  "Verbs  with  o,  e,  o ;  like  throw,  threw,  thrown, 
(iii)  Verbs  with  i,  a,  u  ;  like  begin,  began,  begun, 
(iv)  Verbs  with  1,  u,  u ;  like  fling,  flung,  flung, 
(v)  Verbs  with  i,  ou,  ou ;  like  find,  found,  found, 
(vi)  Verbs  with  ea,  o,  0 ;  like  break,  broke,  broken, 
(vii)  Verbs  with  i,  a,  i ;  like  give,  gave,  given, 
(viii)  Verbs  with  a,  o  or  oo,  a ;  like  shake,  shook,  shaken, 
(ix)  Verbs  with  i  (long),  o,  1  (short) ;  like  drive,  drove,  driven, 
(x)  Verbs  with  ee  or  oo,  o,  o ;  like  freeze,  froze,  frozen ;  or  choose, 
chose,  chosen. 

29.  Weak  Verbs  are  of  two  kinds:  (i)  Irregular  Weak; 
and  (ii)  Regular  Weak.  The  Irregular  Weak  are  such  verba 
as  tell,  told;  buy,  bought.  The  Regular  Weak  are  such 
verbs  as  attend,  attended ;  obey,  obeyed. 

(i)  The  Irregular  Weak  verbs  are,  with  very  few  exceptions,  mono- 
syllables, and  are  almost  all  of  purely  English  origin. 

(ii)  The  Regular  Weak  verbs  are  generally  of  Latin  or  of  French  origin. 
Since  the  language  lost  the  power  of  changing  the  root-vowel  of  a  verb, 
every  verb  received  into  our  tongue  from  another  language  has  been 
placed  in  the  Regular  Weak  conjugation. 


1  The  past  tenses  of  dig  and  stick  were  formerly  weak  ;  so  were  the  pas 
sive  participles  of  hide,  rot,  show,  strew,  saw. 


46 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


(iii)  The  ed  or  d  is  not  a  shortened  form  of  did,  as  Mas  once 
believed.  It  simply  represents  the  A.S.  -de,  one  of  the  past  suffixes 
of  Weak  Verbs. 

30.  Irregular  Weak  verbs  are .  themselves  divided  into  two 
classes :  (i)  those  which  keep  their  ed,  d,  or  t  in  the  past 
tense;  (ii)  those  which  have  lost  the  d  or  t.  Thus  we  find 
(i)  sleep,  slept ;  teach,  taught.  Among  (ii)  we  find  feed,  fed, 
which  was  once  fed-de ;  set,  set,  which  was  once  set-te. 

It  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  attend  to  the  following 
changes  : — 

(i)  A  sharp  consonant  follows  a  sharp,  and  a  flat  a  flat.  Thus  p  in 
sleep  is  sharp,  and  therefore  we  cannot  say  sleeped.  "We  must  take  the 
sharp  form  of  d,  which  is  t,  and  say  slept.  So  also  felt,  burnt,  dreamt, 
etc. 

(ii)  Some  verbs  shorten  their  vowel.  Thus  we  have  hear,  heard ;  flee, 
fled ;  sleep,  slept,  etc. 

(iii)  Some  verbs  have  different  vowels  in  the  present  and  past :  as 
tell,  told ;  buy,  bought ;  teach,  taught ;  work,  wrought.  But  it  is  not 
the  past  tense,  it  is  the  present  that  has  changed  Thus  the  o  in  told 
represents  the  a  in  tale,  etc. 

(iv)  Some  have  dropped  an  internal  letter.  Thus  made  is=makede; 
paid=payede;  had=hadde. 

(v)  Some  verbs  change  the  d  of  the  present  into  a  t  in  the  past.  Thua 
we  have  build,  built ;  said,  tent. 

(vi)  A  large  class  have  the  three  parts — present,  past,  and  passive 
participle — exactly  alike.     Such  are  rid,  set,  etc. 


The  following  is  an 


ALPHABETICAL    LIST    OF   IRREGULAR  WEAK   VERBS. 
Class  I. 


Pres. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Pres. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part 

Bereave 

bereft 

bereft. 

Dwell 

dwelt 

dwelt. 

Beseech 

besought 

besought. 

Feel 

felt 

felt. 

Bring 

brought 

brought. 

Flee 

fled 

fled. 

Burn 

burnt 

burnt. 

Grave 

graved 

graven. 

Buy 

bought 

bought. 

Have 

had 

had. 

Catch 

caught 

caught. 

Hew 

hewed 

hewn. 

Cleave 

cleft 

cleft. 

Keep 

kept 

kept. 

Creep 

crept 

crept. 

Kneel 

knelt 

knelt. 

Deal 

dealt 

dealt. 

Lay 

laid 

laid. 

Dream 

dreamt 

dreamt. 

Lean 

leant 

leant. 

THE 

VERB. 

4 

Pre*. 

Past. 

Past  Part. 

Pres. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Learn 

learnt 

learnt. 

Shear 

sheared 

shorn. 

Leap 

leapt 

leapt. 

Shoe 

shod 

shod. 

Leave 

left 

left. 

Show 

showed 

shown. 

Lose 

lost 

lost. 

Sleep 

slept 

slept. 

Make 

made 

made. 

Sow 

sowed 

sown. 

Mean 

meant 

meant. 

Spell 

spelt 

spelt. 

Pay 

paid 

paid. 

Spill 

spilt 

spilt. 

Pen 

pent 

pent. 

Strew 

strewed 

strewn. 

(penned) 

Sweep 

swept 

swept 

Rap  (to 

rapt 

rapt. 

Swell 

swelled 

swollen. 

transport) 

Teach 

taught 

taught 

Rive 

rived 

riven. 

Tell 

told      . 

told. 

Rot 

rotted 

rotten.1 

Think 

thought 

thought 

Say 

said 

said. 

Tie 

tied 

tight1 

Saw 

sawed 

sawn. 

"Weep 

wept 

wept. 

Seek 

sought 

sought 

Work 

wrought 

wrought.1 

Sell 
Shave 

sold 
shaved 

sold. 
shaven. 

worked 

worked. 

1  Rotten,  tight,  and  wrought  are 

now  used 

as  adjectives,  and  not 

passive 

participles ; 

cp.  wrought  iro 

n,  a  tight  knot,  rotten  wood. 

Clas 

s  II. 

Pre*. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Pres. 

Past. 

Pass.  Part. 

Bend 

bent 

bent. 

Meet 

met 

met 

Bleed 

bled 

bled. 

Put 

put 

put 

Blend 

blent 

blent. 

Read 

read 

read. 

Breed  ' 

bred 

bred. 

Rend 

rent 

rent. 

Build 

built 

built 

Rid 

rid 

rid. 

Cast 

cast 

cast. 

Send 

sent 

sent 

Clothe 

clad 

clad 

Set 

set 

set. 

(clothed)      (clothed). 

Shed 

shed 

shed. 

Cost 

cost 

cost. 

Shred 

shred 

shred. 

Cut 

cut 

cut 

Shut 

shut 

shut. 

Feed 

fed 

fed. 

Slit 

slit 

slit 

Gild 

got 

gilt  (gilded). 

Speed 

sped 

sped. 

(gilded) 

Spend 

spent 

spent. 

Gird 

girt 

girt 

Spit 

spit,  spat 

spit 

Hear 

heard 

heard. 

Split 

split 

split 

Hit 

hit 

hit. 

Spread 

spread 

spread. 

Hurt 

hurt 

hurt. 

Sweat 

sweat 

sweat 

Knit 

knit 

knit. 

Thrust 

thrust 

thrust 

Lead 

led 

led. 

Wend 

wended 

wended. 

Lend 

lent 

lent. 

or  went 

Let 

let 

let 

Wet 

wet 

wet 

Light 

Ht(Ughted31it(Hghted). 

47 


48 


GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


31.  Before  we  can  learn  the  full  conjugation  of  a  verb,  we 
must  acquaint  ourselves  with  all  the  parts  of  the  auxiliary- 
verbs — Shall  and  Will ;  Have  and  Be. 

(i)  If  be  means  existence  merely  (as  in  the  sentence  God  is),  it  is 
called  a  notional  verb ;  if  it  is  used  in  the  formation  of  the  passive 
voice,  it  is.  an  auxiliary  verb.  In  the  same  way,  have  is  a  notional 
verb  when  it  means  to  possess,  as  in  the  sentence,  "  I  have  a  shilling. " 

32.  The  following  are  the  parts  of  the  verb  Shall : — 

Indicative  Mood. 


Singular. 

1.  I  shall. 

2.  Thoushal-t. 

3.  He  shall 


Singular. 

1.  I  shoul-d. 

2.  Thou  shoul-d-Bt 

3.  He  shoul-rf. 


Present  Tense. 

Plural. 

1.  We  shall. 

2.  You  shall. 

3.  They  shall. 


Past  Tense. 


Plural. 

1.  We  shoul-d 

2.  You  shoul-d 

3.  They  shoul-d 


Imp.  Mood .       Inf.  Mood .      Participles  — 

(Should  comes  from  an  old  dialectic  form  scholde) 

33.  The  following  are  the  parts  of  the  verb  Will : — 


Indicative  Mood. 

Present  Tense. 

Singular. 

Plural. 

1.  I  will 

1.  We  will. 

2.  Thou  wil-t. 

2.  You  wilL 

3.  He  will. 

Past  Tense, 

3.  They  will. 

Singular. 

Plural. 

1.  I  woul-e£. 

1.  We  woul-c?. 

2.  Thou  woul-d-st 

2.  You  woul-d 

3.  He  woul-d 

3.  They  woul-d 

Imp.  Mood 


Inf.  Mood 


Participles 


(i)  Shall  and  will  are  used  as  Tense-auxiliaries.  As  a  tense-auxiliary, 
shall  is  used  only  in  the  first  person.  Thus  we  say,  I  shall  write  ; 
thou  wilt  write  ;  he  will  write — when  we  speak  merely  of  future  time. 


THE   VERB.  49 

(ii)  Shan't  is  =  shall  not.  Wont  is  =  wol  not,  wol  being  an  older  form 
of  will.     We  find  wol  also  in  wolde — an  old  spelling  of  would. 

(iii)  Shall  in  the  1st  person  expresses  simple  futurity ;  in  the  2d  and 
3d  persons,  authority.  Will  in  the  1st  person  expresses  determination ; 
in  the  2d  and  3d,  only  futurity. 

34.  The  following  are  the  parts  of  the  verb  Have : — 

Indicative  Mood. 
Present  Indefinite  Tense. 
Singular.  PluraL 

1.  I  have.  1.  We  have. 

2.  Thou  ha-Bt.  2.  You  have. 

3.  He  has.  3.  They  have. 

r  •      Present  Perfect  Tense. 

Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  have  had.  1.  We  have  had. 

2.  Thou  hast  had.  2.  You  have  had. 

3.  He  has  had.  3.  They  have  had. 

(i)  Hast  =  havest.    Compare  e'en  and  even,     (ii)  Had=hadde. 

Past  Indefinite  Tense. 

Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  had.  1.  We  had. 

2.  Thou  had-st.  2.  You  had. 

3.  He  had.  3    They  had. 

Past  Perfect  (or  Pluperfect)  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  had  had.  1.  We  had  had. 

2.  Thou  hadst  had.  2.  You  had  had. 

3.  He  had  had.  3.  They  had  had. 

Future  Indefinite  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I*hallhave.  1.  We  shall  have. 

2.  Thou  wilt  have.  2.  You  will  have. 

3.  He  will  have.  3.  They  will  have. 

Future  Perfect  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  shall  have  had.  1.  We  shall  have  had. 

2.  Thou  wilt  have  had.  2.  You  will  have  had. 

3.  He  will  have  had.  3.  They  will  have  had. 


50  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

Subjunctive  Mood. 
Present  Indefinite  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  have.  1.  We  have. 

2.  Thou  have.  2.  You  have. 

3.  He  have.  3.  They  have. 

Present  Perfect  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  have  had.  1.  We  have  had. 

2.  Thou  have  had.  2.  You  have  had. 

3.  He  have  had.  3.  They  have  had. 

Past  Indefinite  Tense. 

Same  in  form  as  in  the  Indicative  ;  but  with  no  inflexion  in  the 
second  person. 

Past  Perfect  Tense. 

Same  in  form  as  in  the  Indicative  ;  but  with  no  inflexion  in  the 
second  person. 

Past  Indefinite  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  had.  1.  We  had. 

2.  Thou  had.  2.  You  had. 

3.  He  had.  3.  They  had. 

Past  Perfect  (Pluperfect)  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  had  had.  1.  We  had  had. 

2.  Thou  had  had.  2.  You  had  had. 

3.  He  had  had.  3.  They  had  had. 

Imperative  Mood. — Singular :  Have  !    Plural :  Have  ! 

Infinitive  Mood. — Present  Indefinite  :  (To)  have.    Perfect :  (To)  have  had. 

Participles. — Imperfect :  Having.     Past  (or  Passive) :  Had. 

Compound  Perfect  (Active) :  Having  had. 

35.  The  following  are  the  parts  of  the  verb  Be  : — 
Indicative  Mood. 

Present  Indefinite  Tense. 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  am.  1.  We  are. 

2.  Thou  ar-t.  2.  You  are. 

3.  He  is.  3.  They  are. 


THE  VERB.  51 


Present  Perfect  Tense. 

Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  have  been.  1.  We  have  been. 

2.  Thou  hast  been.  2.  You  have  been. 

3.  He  has  been.  3.  They  have  been. 

Past  Indefinite  Tense. 

Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  was.  1.  We  were. 

2.  Thou  wast  or  wert.  2.   You  were. 

3.  He  was.  3.  They  were. 

Past  Perfect  (Pluperfect)  Tense. 

Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  had  been.  1.  We  had  been. 

2.  Thou  hadst  been.  2.  You  had  been. 

3.  He  had  been.  3.  They  had  been. 


ire  Indefinite  Tense. 
I  shall  be,  etc. 

Future  Perfect  Tense. 
I  shall  have  been,  etc. 

Subjunctive  Mood. 

Present  Indefinite  Tense. 

Singular. 

1.  I  be. 

2.  Thou  be. 

3.  Hebe. 

Plural. 

1.  We  be. 

2.  You  be. 

3.  They  be. 

Present  Perfect  Tense. 

Singular. 

1.  I  have  been. 

2.  Thou  have  been. 

3.  He  have  been. 

Plural. 

1.  We  have  been. 

2.  You  have  been. 

3.  They  have  been. 

Past  Indefinite  Tense. 

Singular. 

1.  I  were. 

2.  Thouwert. 

3.  He  were. 

Plural. 

1.  We  were. 

2.  You  were. 

3.  They  were. 

Past  Perfect  (Pluperfect)  Tense. 

Singular. 

1.  I  had  been. 

2.  Thou  had  been. 
§.  He  had  been. 

Plural. 

1.  We  had  been,. 

2.  You  had  been. 

3.  They  had  beei}, 

52  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


Past  Indefinite  (Compound  Form). 

Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  should  be.  1.  We  should  be. 

2.  Thou  should  be.  2.  You  should  be. 

3.  He  should  be.  3.  They  should  be. 

Future  Perfect  (Compound  Form). 
Singular.  Plural. 

1.  I  should  have  been.  1.  We  should  have  been. 

2.  Thou  should  have  been  2.  You  should  have  been. 
8.   He  should  have  been.  3.  They  should  have  been. 

Imperative  Mood. — Singular :  Be  !     Plural :  Be  ! 

Infinitive  Mood. — Present  Indefinite  :  (To)  be.     Present  Perfect : 
(To)  have  been. 

Participles. — Present :  Being.    Past :  Been.    Compound :  Having  been. 
We  find  the  short  simple  form  Be  !  in  Coleridge's  line— 

"  Be,  rather  than  be  called,  a  child  of  God  !  " 

(i)  It  is  plain  from  the  above  that  the  verb  Be  is  made  up  of  fragmenta 
of  three  different  verbs.  As  when,  in  a  battle,  several  companies  of  a 
regiment  have  been  severely  cut  up,  and  the  fragments  of  those  that 
came  out  safely  are  afterwards  formed  into  one  company,  so  has  it  been 
with  the  verb  be.  Hence  the  verb  ought  to  be  printed  thus  : — 
Am  

was  

been. 

(ii)  Am  is  a  different  verb  from  "was  and  been.  The  m  in  am  is  the 
same  as  the  m  in  me,  and  marks  the  first  person.  The  t  in  art  is  the 
same  as  the  th  in  thou,  and  marks  the  second  person.  Compare  wil-t 
and  shal-t.  Is  has  lost  the  suffix  th.  The  Germans  retain  this,  and  say 
ist.  Are  is  not  the  O.E.  plural,  which  was  sind  or  sindon.  The  word 
are  was  introduced  by  the  Danes.  [The  Danish  word  to  this  day  is  er, 
which  we  have  learned  to  pronounce  ar,  as  we  do  the  er  in  clerk  and 
Derby.  ] 

(iii)  Was  is  the  past  tense  of  the  old  verb  wesan,  to  be.  In  some  of 
the  dialects  of  England  it  appears  as  war — the  German  form. 

(iv)  Be  is  a  verb  without  present  or  past  tense. 

(v)  {a)  Be  is  a  notional  or  principal  verb  when  it  means  to  exist,  as 
"  God  is."  (6)  It  is  also  a  principal  verb  when  it  is  used  as  a  joiner  or 
copula,  as  in  the  sentence,  "  John  is  a  teacher,"  where  the  is  enables  us 
to  connect  John  and  teacher  in  the  mind.  In  such  instances  it  is  called 
a  Copulative  Verb  or  Copula. 


THE   VERB.  53 

AUXILIARY  VERBS. 
36.  Auxiliary  Verbs  are  Verbs  which  are  used  to  modify 
the  sense  of  other  verbs  or  to  assist  them   in  expressing  a 
meaning,  the  verbs  to  which  they  are  attached  being  termed 
Principal  Verbs. 

43T  Every  Auxiliary  Verb  is  also  capable  of  being  used  as  a 
Principal  Verb. 

Auxiliary  Verbs  may  be  classified  as  Auxiliaries  of  Voice, 
of  Tense,  of  Mood,  and  of  Form. 

(a)  Auxiliary  of  Voice.  Be  is  the  only  Voice  Auxiliary, 
and  it  is  used  to  enable  us  to  form  the  Passive  Voice. 

Active  Voice.  Passive  Voice. 

They  build  a  ship.  The  ship  is  built. 

He  reared  a  monument.  A  monument  was  reared. 

(b)  Auxiliaries  of  Tense.  The  Tense  Auxiliaries,  in  the 
order  of  their  importance,  are  Have,  shall,  will,  and  be. 

(i)  Have  is  used  to  form  the  Perfect  Tenses — (a)  Present 
(b)  Past,  and  (c)  Future  Perfect. 

(a)  He  has  been,     (b)  They  had  gone,     (c)  She  will  have  returned, 
(ii)  Shall  and  will  are  used  to  form  the  Future  Tense. 
The  boy  will  go.  I  shall  return. 

GOT  In  old  English  there  was  no  separate  form  for  the  future  tense ; 
the  present  tense  was  made  to  do  duty  for  the  future,  an  Adverb 
sometimes  assisting  the  process.  This  usage  still  survives  in  such 
sentences  as:  "We  return  to-morrow,"  where  a  future  meaning  is 
imparted  to  the  Verb  by  the  Adverb.  Shall  and  will,  originally 
principal  verbs  only,  gradually  crept  into  use  as  tense-auxiliaries. 

Be  is  used  optionally  with  Have,  to  form  the  Perfect 
Tenses  of  Intransitive  Verbs  of  motion,  as  go,  come,  rise,  fall, 
arrive,  depart,  ascend,  descend,  pass,  escape,  return,  enter. 

He  is  arrived  (Present  Perfect).  He  was  gone  (Past  Perfect). 

(c)  Auxiliaries  of  Mood.  The  Auxiliaries  of  the  Subjunc- 
tive Mood  are  may  (in  its  past  tense  might),  would,  and 
should. 

Examples  of  the  uses  of  these  are  given  on  pages  53(c)  and 
53(d). 

<3T  Let,  though  sometimes  regarded  as  an  Auxiliary  of  tho 
Imperative  Mood  (third  person),  is  better  taken  as  a  Principal  Verb. 


53(a)  GRAMMAR   OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(d)  Auxiliaries  of  Form.     Be,  do. 

(i)  Be  is  an  auxiliary  of  the  Progressive  Form  of  the  pre- 
sent, the  past,  and  the  future  tenses. 

I  am  going  is  the  progressive  form  of      I  go. 

He  was  writing  ,,  ,,  ,,  He  wrote. 

James  will  be  starting  ,,  ,,  „  James  will  start. 

(ii)  Do,  as  an  auxiliary,  may  be  employed  to  assist  in 
expressing ; 

(a)  Emphasis.  He  does  know  his  work. 

(6)  Interrogation.       Do  you  see  ? 
(c)  Negation.  I  do  not  see  it. 

^p*  In  the  first  of  these  three  sentences  "does"  lends  additional 
force  or  emphasis   to  the  word  know;    in    the  second  and  third 
sentences  it  lends  no  emphasis,  but  is  simply  used  to  express  the 
more  usual  and  idiomatic  of  two  alternative  forms. 
In  sense  "  Do  you  see ?  "  is  the  exact  equivalent  of  "  See  you?  " 
and  "  I  do  not  see  it "        „  „  ,,      "  I  see  it  not." 

The  alternative  forms  are  quite  correct  in  grammar  ;  but  they  are 
not  usual  or  idiomatic. 

DEFECTIVE  VERBS. 

37.  Defective  Verbs  are  such  as  are  wanting  in  one  or  more 
of  their  parts.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  them  were  at  one  period 
complete,  but,  through  modification  of  their  use  or  from  some 
other  cause,  part  of  the  verb  has  fallen  into  disuse,  and  thus 
gradually  disappeared.     The  principal  Defective  Verbs  are — 


Present  Tense. 

Past  Tense. 

Past  Participle. 

Beware 





Can 

Could1 







Dight 

Forego  2 



Foregone 

Hight3 

Hight 

* 

May 

Might 



Melists  4 

Melisted 



Meseems 

Meseemed 



Methinks 

Methought 



i  Could  (in  O.E.  cu-the)  is  a  weak  form.     The  1  is  intrusive,  and  came  in 
from  a  false  analogy  with  should  and  would. 

2  This  ought  to  be  spelled  forgo.     The  for  in  this  word  is  a  prefix  of 
negation,  as  in  forget,  forgive,  etc. 

3  Hight  (=is  or  was  called)  is  the  only  instance  in  our  language  of  a  pure 
passive  verb.  4  Him  listed  is  also  found. 


THE   VERB. 

Present  Tense. 

Past  Tense. 

Must1 



Ought 





Quoth 

Shall 

Should 

Will 

Would 

WotUw/.  to  wit)2 

Wist 

Worth3 



53(b) 
Past  Participle, 


Yclept 

ANOMALOUS  VERBS. 

38.  Anomalous  Verbs  are  such  as  are  made  up  of  two  or  more 
quite  distinct  Verbs.     The  Anomalous  Verbs  are  Be  and  Go. 

(i)  Be.  This  verb  contains  three  distinct  roots.  The  Pre- 
sent Indicative  is  from  the  root  as  ;  the  Present  Subjunctive, 
Imperative,  Infinitive,  and  Participles  are  from  the  root  be ; 
the  Past  Indicative  and  Past  Subjunctive  are  from  the  root 
wesan  (see  page  52). 

(ii)  Go.    This  verb  contains  two  distinct  roots.    The  Present 

tense  is  from  the  root  go ;  the  Past  tense  is  from  the  root 

wend,  which  is  still  occasionally  used  both  in  prose  and  verse. 

^g"  These  verbs  cannot  be  classed  as  either  weak  or  strong,  since 

the  ordinary  tests  do  not  apply  to  them. 

REMARKS  ON  PECULIAR  VERBS. 

CAN,   MUST. 

39.  Can  (or  its  past  tense  Gould)  and  Must  are  always  and 
invariably  Principal  verbs.  They  are  Principal  Verbs  because 
in  every  instance  in  which  they  are  used,  a  distinct  and  inde- 
pendent meaning  of  power,  possibility,  or  obligation  attaches  to 
them  apart  from  the  Infinitive  Verb  which  follows  them. 

I  can  run=I  have  the  power  to  run. 

I  could  see  at  one  time  =  I  had  the  power  to  see,  etc. 

I  could  have  gone,  if  I  had  been  present  =  I  had  the  opportunity,  etc. 

He  must  depart  =  He  M  obliged  or  compelled  to  depart. 

They  differ,  however,  from  ordinary  "Verbs  in  this  respect,  viz.  : 
that  they  can  take  only  an  Infinitive  Verb  as  object  after  them  ; 
they  are  never  followed  by  a  Noun  or  Pronoun  as  object. 

1  Mu«t  was  originally  the  past  tense  of  the  old  verb  motan  (=to  be  able 
or  to  be  obliged).  Mot  was=may  ;  and  miut=might,  etc.  Man  or  maun  takes 
the  place  of  must  in  the  North  of  England  and  in  Scotland. 

a  This  verb  has  also  a  present  participle  witting,  which  is  found  in  wittingly 
and  unwitting.  *  In  such  phrases  as  "  Woe  worth  the  day  1" 


53(c)  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGIISH   LANGUAGE. 

MAY,   SHALL,   WILL. 

40.  (i)  May  (with  its  past  tense  might),  shall  (with  its  past 
tense  should),  and  will  (with  its  past  tense  would)  are  some- 
times Principal  and  sometimes  Auxiliary  Verbs. 

(a)  May  is  a  Principal  Verb  when  it  denotes  permission. 

The  boys  may  go  out  to  play  (  =  are  allowed). 

(b)  It  is  an  Auxiliary  of  the  Subjunctive  Mood  when  it 
denotes  uncertainty. 

He  may  succeed,  if  he  takes  pains. 

(ii)  Might  is  (a)  a  Principal  Verb  when  it  denotes  permis- 
sion or  ability. 

She  might  have  gone,  but  preferred  to  remain  ( =  She  had  the 
power  to  go). 

(b)  It  is  an  Auxiliary  of  the  Subjunctive  Mood  when  it 
denotes  uncertainty. 

I  thought  he  might  call. 

(iii)  Shall  is  (a)  a  Principal  Verb  when  it  denotes  compul- 
sion (or,  occasionally,  leave),  and  when  used  with  the  Second 
and  Third  Persons. 

You  shall  depart.  Rome  shall  perish. 

(b)  It  is  an  Auxiliary  of  Tense,  and  denotes  simply  futurity ', 
when  used  with  the  First  Person. 

1  shall  soon  go.  We  shall  remain. 

(iv)  Should  is  (a)  a  Principal  Verb  when  it  implies  obligation. 
Children  should  obey  their  parents. 

(b)  It  is  an  Auxiliary  of  the  Subjunctive  Mood  when  it 
denotes  uncertainty. 

If  he  should  appear  (or  Should  he  appear),  I  will  admit  him. 

(v)  (a)  Will  is  a  Principal  Verb,  denoting  volition  or  deter- 
mination, when  used  with  the  First  Person. 

I  will  remove  it. 

<jg"  In  some  of  these  cases,  however,  it  is  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  an  auxiliary  verb,  the  idea  of  volition  being  absent,  and  the 
word  indicating  nothing  beyond  mere  futurity.  The  context  usually 
indicates  the  amount  of  force  attaching  to  "  will." 


THE  VERB.  53(d) 

(b)  It  is  an  Auxiliary  of  Tense,  simply  denoting  futurity, 
when  used  with  the  Second  and  Third  Persons. 
You  will  keep  this.     They  will  soon  return, 
(vi)  (a)  Would  is  a  Principal  Verb  when  it  expresses  deter- 
mination. 

He  would  go  in  spite  of  my  entreaties, 
(b)  It  is  an  Auxiliary  of  the  Subjunctive  Mood  when  it 
implies  uncertainty. 

If  he  applied  himself  more  vigorously,  he  would  succeed. 
^*  Notico  hero  that  both  verbs  of  this  complex  sentence  are  in 
the  Subjunctive  Mood.  "Would"  is  occasionally  used  practically 
as  an  Auxiliary  of  Tense  indicating  a  habitual  repetition  of  the  action. 
"  His  listless  length  at  noontide  would  he  stretch,"  i  e  was  accustomed 
to  stretch. 

OUGHT. 

41.  (vii)  Ought  is  an  old  preterite  (or  past  tense)  of  owe.  It 
is  now  used  as  a  present,  and  it  possesses  the  exceptional  privi- 
lege of  being  allowed  to  violate  the  sequence  of  tenses.  The 
past  tense  of  any  other  verb  when  followed  by  an  Infinitive 
has  to  take  the  Infinitive  in  the  simple  form,  thus : 

She  wished  to  leave. 
Ought,  however,  takes  the  Perfect  Infinitive  : 
You  ought  to  have  gone. 
The  reason  of  this  is  that,  since  ought  is  now  a  present  form  witl 
no    past,    we    signify  the    past    idea    through  the  medium  of  the 
Infinite,    instead   of  by    the  preceding  verb,   as  is  otherwise  the 
universal  rule. 

IMPERSONAL  VERBS. 

42.  Impersonal  Verbs  are  such  as  have  a  non-personal  sub 
ject.     They  may  be  divided  into  two  classes. 

(a)  Old  Impersonal  Verbs,  whose  subject  is  a  sentence 
following  the  verb,  and  whose  dative  (or  indirect)  object  is 
attracted  to  the  vero. 

Methinks  he  doth  protest  too  much. 
Meseems  they  have  gone. 
Melisteth  they  will  follow. 
J3T  Melists  and  meseems  are  obsolete,  methinks  is  obsolescent. 

(b)  Verbs  following  a  personal  pronoun  used  in  a  purely 
indefinite  and  impersonal  sense. 

It  rainSy  it  snows,  etc. 
In  the  above  sentences,  if  it  stands  for  anything,  it  stands  for  rain, 
snow,  etc.     "The  rain  rains."     " The  snow  snows,"  etc. 


54 


QKAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


43.   The  following  is  the  full  conjugation  of  a  verb  : — 


ACTIVE    VOICE. 
Indicative  Mood. 


I.  Present  Indefinite  Tense. 
I  strike. 

Present  Perfect  Tense. 
I  have  struck. 

II.  Past  Indefinite  Tense. 
I  struck. 

Past  Perfect  (or  Pluperfect) 
Tense. 
I  had  struck. 

III.  Future  Indefinite  Tense. 
I  shall  strike. 

Future  Perfect  Tense. 
I  shall  have  struck. 


Present  Imperfect  Tense. 
I  am  striking. 

Present  Perfect  Continuous. 
I  have  been  striking. 

Past  Imperfect  Tense. 
I  was  striking. 

Past  Perfect  (or  Pluperfect) 
Continuous. 
I  had  been  striking. 

Future  Imperfect  Tense. 
I  shall  be  striking. 

Future  Perfect  Continuous. 
I  shall  have  been  striking. 


Subjunctive  Mood. 


I.  Present  Indefinite  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  strike. 

Present  Perfect  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  have  struck. 

II.  Past  Indefinite  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  struck. 

Past  Perfect  (or  Pluperfect) 
Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  had  struck. 


Present  Imperfect  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  be  striking. 

Present  Perfect  Continuous. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  have  been  striking. 

Past  Imperfect  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  were  striking. 

Past  Perfect  (or  Pluperfect) 
Continuous. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  had  been  striking. 


III.  Future  Indefinite  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  should  strike. 
Future  Perfect  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  should  have  struck. 


Future  Imperfect  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  should  be  striking. 

Future  Perfect  Continuous. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  should  have  been 
striking. 

(The  Future  Subjunctive,  when  not  preceded  by  a  Conjunction,  is  some- 
times called  the  Conditional  Mood.  "  I  should  strike  him  if  he  were  to 
hurt  the  child."3 


The  verb.  55 


Imperative  Mood. 

I.  Present  Tense. 
Singular      2.  Strike  (thou) !  Plural.     2.  Strike  (ye)  I 

II.  Past  Tense. 
(None.) 

III.  Future  Tense. 
2.  Thou  shalt  strike.  2.  You  shall  strike. 

Infinitive  Mood. 

1.  Present  Indefinite,        .        .  (To)  strike. 

2.  Present  Imperfect,         .         .  (To)  be  striking. 

3.  Present  Perfect^    .        .        .  (To)  have  struck. 

4.  Present  Perfect  Continuous,  (To)  have  been  striking. 

5.  Future  Indefinite,  .        .  (To)  be  about  to  strike. 

Participles. 

1.  Indefinite  and  Imperfect,      .  Striking. 

2.  Present  Perfect,    .        .        .  Having  struck. 

3.  Perfect  Continuous,      .        .  Having  been  striking. 

4.  Future, Going  or  about  to  strike. 

Gerunds. 
1.  Striking.  2.  To  strike. 

PASSIVE    VOICE. 

Indicative  Mood. 

I.  Present  Indefinite  Tense.  Present  Imperfect  Tense. 

I  am  struck.  I  am  being  struck. 

Present  Perfect  Tense.  Present  Continuous. 

I  have  been  struck.  I  am  being  struck. 

II.  Past  Indefinite  Tense.  Past  Imperfect  Tense. 

I  was  struck.  I  was  being  struck. 

Past  Perfect  Tense.  Past  Continuous. 

I  had  been  struck.  I  was  being  struck. 

III.  Future  Indefinite  Tense.  Future  Imperfect  Tense. 

I  shall  be  struck.  (None. ) 

Future  Perfect  Tense.  Future  Continuous. 

I  shall  have  been  struck.  (None. ) 


56 


GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


Subjunctive  Mood. 


I.  Present  Indefinite  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  be  struck. 

Present  Perfect  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  have  been  struck. 

II.  Past  Indefinite  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  were  struck. 
Past  Perfect  Tense. 
(If)  I  had  been  struck. 


Present  Imperfect  Tense. 
(None. ) 

Present  Perfect  Continuous. 

(None. ) 

Past  Imperfect  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  were  being  struck. 

Past  Perfect  Continuous. 
(None.) 


III.  Future  Indefinite  Tense. 

(If)  I,  thou,  he  should  be  struck. 

Future  Perfect  Tense. 
(If)  I,  thou,  he  should  have  been 
struck. 

(This  tense,  when  used  without  a  preceding  conjunction,  is  sometimes 
called  the  Conditional  Mood.     "  I  should  be  struck  were  I  to  go  there.") 


Future  Imperfect  Tense. 
(None. ) 

Future  Perfect  Continuous. 

(None. ) 


Imperative  Mood. 
I.  Present  Tense. 


Singular.     2.  Be  struck  ! 


Plural.     2.  Be  struck  1 


II.  Past  Tense. 

(None.) 


III.  Future  Tense. 
Singular. 
2.  Thou  shalt  be  struck. 


Plural.. 
2.  You  shall  be  struck. 


Infinitive  Mood. 


1.  Indefinite, 

2.  Imperfect, 

3.  Present  Perfect, 


1.  Indefinite, 

2.  Imperfect, 

3.  Present  Perfect, 

4.  Future,    . 


(To)  be  struck. 

(None. ) 

(To)  have  been  struck. 


Participles. 


Struck. 

Being  struck. 

Having  been  struck. 

Going  or  about  to  be  struck. 


Gerunds. 
(None.) 


ADVERBS.  57 


ADVERBS. 

1.  An  Adverb  is  a  word  which  qualifies  any  part  of  speech 
except  a  pronoun. 

(i)  He  writes  badly  (badly  modifies  the  verb  twites). — The  sun  is  very  hot 
(very  qualifies  the  adjective  hot).— She  writes  very  rapidly  (very  qualifies 
rapidly,  and  rapidly  qualifies  writes). 

(ii)  Adverbs  modify  prepositions  as  in  "  He  came  long  be/ore  the  time" ; 
or  conjunctions  as  in  "  He  is  unhappy,  even  though  he  is  rich"  ;  or  even 
nouns,  as  in  "Even  Homer  sometimes  nods." 

THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF  ADVERBS. 

2.  Adverbs — so  far  as  their  function  is  concerned — are  of 
two  kinds  :  (i)  Simple  Adverbs  and  (ii)  Conjunctive  Adverbs. 
(i)  A  Simple  Adverb  merely  modifies  the  word  it  goes  with. 
A  Conjunctive  Adverb  has  two  functions :  (a)  it  modifies, 
and  (b)  joins  one  sentence  with  another.  Thus,  if  I  say  "  He 
came  when  he  was  ready,"  the  adverb  when  not  only  modifies 
the  verb  came,  and  shows  the  time  of  his  coming,  but  it  joins 
together  the  two  sentences  "  He  came"  and  "  he  was  ready." 

3.  Adverbs — so  far  as  their  meaning  is  concerned — are  of 
several  kinds.  There  are  Adverbs  :  (i)  of  Time,  (ii)  of  Place, 
(iii)    of  Number,  (iv)    of  Manner,    (v)    of  Degree,   (vi)   of 

Assertion,  (vii)  of  Reasoning,  (viii)  Interrogative. 

(i)  Of  Time  :  Now,  then  ;  to-day,  to-morrow ;  by-and-by,  etc. 
(ii)  Of  Place  :  Here,  there  ;  hither,  thither ;  hence,  thence,  etc, 
(iii)  Of  Number :  Once,  twice,  thrice  ;  singly,  two  by  two,  etc 
(iv)  Of  Manner :  Well,  ill  j  slowly,  quickly ;  better,  worse,  etc. 
(v)  Of  Degree  :  Very,  little  ;  almost,  quite  ;  all,  half,  etc. 
(vi)  Of  Assertion  :  Nay,  yea  ;  no,  aye  ;  yes,  etc. 
(vii)  Of  Reasoning:  Therefore,  wherefore;  thus;  consequently, 
(viii)  Interrogative:  Why?  How?  Where?  When?  etc. 

THE  COMPARISON   OF  ADVERBS. 

4.  Adverbs,  like  adjectives,  admit  of  degrees  of  comparison. 
Thus  we  can  say,  John  works  hard;  Tom  works  harder;  but 
William  works  hardest  of  all. 


58 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


5.  The  following  are  examples  of 


Irregular  Comparison  in  Adverbs. 


Positive. 

Comparative. 

Superlative. 

IU  (or  Badly) 

worse 

worst. 

Well 

better 

best. 

Much 

more 

most. 

Little 

less 

least. 

Nigh  (or 

Near) 

nearer 

next. 

Forth 

further 

furthest. 

Far 

farther 

farthest. 

Late 

later 

last. 

latter 

latest. 

(Rathe) 

rather. 



(i)  Worse  comes  from  A.S.  adv.  wyrs.    Shakespeare  has  worser. 

(ii)  Much  is  an  adverb  in  the  phrase  much  hettcr. 

(iii)  Little  is  an  adverb  in  the  phrase  little  inclined. 

(iv)  Next  =  nighest ;  and  so  we  had  also  hext= highest.  Near  is 
really  the  comparative  of  nigh. 

(v)  Farrer  would  be  the  proper  comparative.  Chaucer  has  farre, 
and  this  is  still  found  in  Yorkshire.  The  th  in  farther  comes  from  a 
false  analogy  with  forth,  further,  furthest. 

(vi)  Late  is  an  adverb  in  the  phrase  He  arrived  late. 

(vii)  "  Till  rathe  she  rose,  half-cheated  in  the  thought." — Tennyson 
('  Lancelot  and  Elaine '). 

CONNECTIVES. 

1.  There  is,  in  grammar,  a  class  of  words  which  may  be 
called  joining  words  or  connectives.  They  are  of  two  classes  : 
(i)  those  which  join  nouns  or  pronouns  to  some  other  word ; 
and  (ii)  those  which  join  -words  or  sentences.  The  first 
class  are  called  Prepositions ;  the  second  Conjunctions. 


PKEPOSITIONS. 

2.  A  Preposition  is  a  word  which  connects  a  noun  or  pro- 
noun with  a  verb,  an  adjective,  or  another  noun  or  pronoun. 
(It  thus  shows  the  relation  between  things,  or  between  a  thing 
and  an  action,  etc.) 

(i)  He  stood  on  the  table.    Here  on  joins  a  verb  and  a  noun. 


CONNECTIVES.  59' 

(ii)  Mary  is  fond  of  music.     Here  of  joins  an  adjective  and  a  noun. 

(iii)  The  man  at  the  door  is  waiting.     Here  at  joins  two  nouns. 

The  word  preposition  comes  from  the  Lat.  prce,  before,  and  positus,  placed. 
We  have  similar  compounds  in  composition  and  deposition. 

3.  The  noun  or  pronoun  which  follows  the  preposition  is  in 
the  objective  case,  and  is  said  to  be  governed  by  the  prepo- 
sition. 

(i)  But  the  preposition  may  come  at  the  end  of  the  sentence.  Thus 
we  can  say,  "This  is  the  house  we  were  looking  at."  But  at  still  gov- 
erns which  (understood)  in  the  objective.  We  can  also  say,  "  Whom 
were  you  talking  to  ?  " 

4.  Prepositions  are  divided  into  two  classes :  (i)  simple  j 
and  (ii)  compound. 

(i)  The  following  are  simple  prepositions :  at,  by,  for,  in,  of  off,  on, 
out,  to,  with,  up. 

(ii)  The  compound  prepositions  are  formed  in  several  ways  : — 

(a)  By  adding  a  comparative  suffix  to  an  adverb  :  after,  over,  under. 
(6)  By  prefixing  a  preposition  to  an  adverb :  above,  about,  before,  behind,  be- 
neath,  but(= be-out),  throughout,  within,  etc. 

(c)  By  prefixing  a  preposition  to  a  noun :  aboard,  across,  around,  among,  be- 
side, outside,  etc. 

(d)  By  prefixing  an  adverb  or  adverbial  particle  to  a  preposition  :  into,  upon, 
until,  etc. 

(iii)  The  preposition  but  is  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  con- 
junction but.  "  All  were  there  but  him."  Here  but  is  a  preposition. 
"  We  waited  an  hour  ;  but  he  did  not  come."  Here  but  is  a  conjunction. 
But,  the  preposition,  was  in  O.E.  be-utan,  and  meant  on  the  outside  of 
and  then  without :  but,  the  conjunction,  is  from  the  same  word.  The  old 
proverb,  "Touch  uot  the  cat  but  a  glove,"  means  "without  a  glove." 

(iv)  Down  was  adown=ofdown  —  offthe  down  or  hill. 

(v)  Among  was  =  on  gemong,  in  the  crowd. 

(vi)  There  are  several  compound  prepositions  made  up  of  separate 
words  :  instead  of,  on  account  of  in  spite  of  etc. 

(vii)  Some  participles  are  used  as  prepositions  :  notwithstanding,  con- 
cerning, respecting.  The  prepositions  except  and  save  may  be  regarded 
as  imperatives,  or  as  past  participles  used  absolutely. 

5.  The  same  words  are  used  sometimes  as  adverbs,  and  some- 
times as  prepositions.  "We  distinguish  these  words  by  their 
function.     They  can  also  be  used  as  nouns  or  as  adjectives.. 


60  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

(i)  Thus  we  find  the  following  words  used  either  as 

Adverbs  or  as  Prepositions. 

(1)  Stand  up  !  (1)  The  boy  ran  up  the  hill. 

(2)  Come  on  !  (2)  The  book  lies  on  the  table. 

(3)  Be  off!  (3)  Get  off  the  chair. 

(4)  He  walked  quickly  past.  (4)  He  walked  past  the  church. 

(ii)  Adverbs  are  sometimes  used  as  nouns,  as  in  the  sentences,  "  1 
have  met  him  before  now."     "  He  is  dead  since  then." 

(iii)  In  the  following  we  find  adverbs  used  as  adjectives :  "  thine 
often  infirmities  ;''  "  the  then  king,"  etc. 

(iv)  A  phrase  sometimes  does  duty  as  an  adverb,  as  in  "  from  beyond 
the  sea  ;  "  "  from  over  the  mountains,"  etc. 

CONJUNCTIONS. 

6.  A  Conjunction  joins  sentences  or  "words  together. 

(i)  The  word  and,  besides  joining  sentences,  possesses  the  additional 
power  of  joining  nouns  or  other  words.  Thus  we  say,  "  John  and  Jane 
are  a  happy  pair  ;  "  "  Two  and  three  are  five." 

7.  Conjunctions  are  of  two  kinds :   (i)  Co-ordinative ;   and 
(ii)  Subordinative. 

(i)  Co-ordinative  Conjunctions  are  those  which  connect  co-ordinate 
sentences  and  clauses — that  is,  sentences  neither  of  which  is  dependent 
on  the  other.  The  following  is  a  list :  And,  both,  but,  either — or,  neither 
— nor,  still,  yet,  nevertheless,  whereas,  therefore,  then,  and/or  (v.  p.  115). 

(ii)  Subordinative  Conjunctions  are  those  which  connect  subordinate 
sentences  with  the  principal  sentence  to  which  they  are  subordinate. 
The  type  of  a  subordinative  conjunction  is  that,  which  is  really  the 
demonstrative  pronoun.  "  I  know  that  he  has  gone  to  London  "  is  = 
1 '  He  has  gone  to  London  :  I  know  that. " 

(iii)  The  following  is  a  list  of  subordinative  conjunctions  :  After, 
before ;  ere,  till  ;  while,  since ;  lest  ;  because,  as ;  for  ;  if;  unless  ; 
though ;  whether — or/  than;  as  if;  why ;  when ;  where,  whence;  how. 


INTERJECTIONS. 

1.  Interjections  are  wolds  which  have  no  meaning  in  them- 
selves, but  which  give  sudden  expression  to  an  emotion  of 
the  mind.  They  are  no  real  part  of  language ;  they  do  not 
enter  into  the  build  or  organism  of  a  sentence.  They  have  no 
grammatical  relation  to  any  word  in  a  sentence,  and  are  there- 


WORDS  KNOWN  BY  THEIR  FUNCTIONS.  61 

fore  not,  strictly  speaking,  "  parts  of  speech."  Thus  we  say,  Oh ! 
Ah  !  Alas !  and  so  on ;  but  the  sentences  we  employ  would  be 
just  as  complete — in  sense — without  them.  They  are  extra- 
grammatical  utterances. 

(i)  The  word  interjection  comes  from  the  Lat  inter,  between,  and 
jactus,  thrown. 

(ii)  Sometimes  words  with  a  meaning  are  used  as  interjections.  Thus 
we  say,  Welcome  !  for  "  You  are  well  come. "  Good-bye  !  for  God  be  with 
you  I  The  interjection  "  Now  then  ! "  consists  of  two  words,  each  of 
which  has  a  meaning ;  but  when  employed  inter jectionally,  the  compound 
meaning  is  very  different  from  the  meaning  of  either. 

(in)  In  written  and  printed  language,  interjections  are  followed  by  the 
mark  (!)  of  admiration  or  exclamation. 


WORDS   KNOWN   BY   THEIR   FUNCTIONS, 
AND   NOT   BY  THEIR   INFLEXIONS. 

1.  The  Oldest  English.  — When  our  language  first  came  ovei 
to  this  island,  in  the  fifth  century,  our  words  possessed  a  large 
number  of  inflexions ;  and  a  verb  could  be  known  from  a  noun, 
and  an  adjective  from  either,  by  the  mere  look  of  it.  Verbs 
had  one  kind  of  inflexion,  nouns  another,  adjectives  a  third; 
and  it  was  almost  impossible  to  confuse  them.  Thus,  in  O.E. 
(or  Anglo-Saxon)  thundery  the  verb,  was  thunrian — with  the 
ending  an;  but  the  noun  was  thunor,  without  any  ending  at 
alL  Then,  in  course  of  time,  for  many  and  various  reasons, 
the  English  language  began  to  lose  its  inflexions;  and  they 
dropped  off  very  rapidly  between  the  11th  and  the  15th  cen- 
turies, till,  nowadays,  we  possess  very  few  indeed. 

2.  Freedom  given  by  absence  of  Inflexions. — In  the  16th 
century,  when  Shakespeare  began  to  write,  there  were  very 
few  inflexions ;  the  language  began  to  feel  greater  liberty, 
greater  ease  in  its  movements ;  and  a  writer  would  use  the  same 
word  sometimes  as  one  part  of  speech,  and  sometimes  as  another. 
Thus  Shakespeare  himself  uses  the  conjunction  but  both  as  a 
verb  and  as  a  noun,  and  makes  one  of  his  characters  say,  "  But 


62  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

me  no  buts  ! "  He  employs  the  adverb  askance  as  a  verb,  and 
says,  "  From  their  own  misdeeds  they  askance  their  eyes."  He 
has  the  adverb  backward  with  the  function  of  a  noun,  as  in 
the  phrase  "The  backward  and  abyss  of  time."  Again,  he  gives 
us  an  adverb  doing  the  work  of  an  adjective,  as  in  the  phrases 
"my  often  rumination,"  "a  seldom  pleasure."  In  the  same 
way,  Shakespeare  has  the  verbs  "to  glad"  and  "to  mad."  Yery 
often  he  uses  an  adjective  as  a  noun;  and  "a  fair"  is  his  phrase 
for  "beauty,"  —  "a  pale"  for  "a  paleness."  He  carries  this 
power  of  using  one  "  part  of  speech "  for  another  to  the  most 
extraordinary  lengths.  He  uses  happy  for  to  make  happy; 
unfair  for  to  deface ;  to  climate  for  to  live  ;  to  bench  for  to  sit  ; 
to  false  for  to  falsify  ;  to  path  for  to  walk;  to  verse  for  to  speak 
of  in  verse  ;  and  many  others.  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  is 
where  he  uses  tongue  for  to  talk  of,  and  brain  for  to  think  of.  In 
"  Cymbeline  "  he  says  : — 

"  'Tis  still  a  dream  ;  or  else  such  stuff  as  madness 
Will  tongue,  and  brain  not.    .    .   ." 

3.  Absence  of  Inflexions. — At  the  present  time,  we  have  lost 
almost  all  the  inflexions  we  once  had.  We  have  only  one  for 
the  cases  of  the  noun ;  none  at  all  for  ordinary  adjectives  (ex- 
cept to  mark  degrees) ;  a  few  in  the  pronoun ;  and  a  few  in  the 
verb.  Hence  we  can  use  a  word  sometimes  as  one  part  of 
speech,  and  sometimes  as  another.  We  can  say,  "  The  boys  had 
a  good  run;"  and  "The  boys  run  very  well."  We  can  say, 
"  The  train  travelled  very  fast,"  where  fast  is  an  adverb,  modi- 
fying travelled ;  and  we  can  speak  of  "a  fast  train."  We  can 
use  the  phrase,  "The  very  man,"  where  very  is  an  adjective 
marking  man  ;  and  also  the  phrase  "  A  very  good  man,"  where 
very  is  an  adverb  modifying  the  adjective  good. 

4.  Function. — It  follows  that,  in  the  present  state  of  our 
language,  when  we  cannot  know  to  what  class  a  word  belongs 
by  its  look,  we  must  settle  the  matter  by  asking  ourselves  what 
is  its  function.  We  need  not  inquire  what  a  word  is ;  but  we 
must  ask  what  it  does.  And  just  as  a  bar  of  iron  may  be  used 
as  a  lever,  or  as  a  crowbar,  or  as  a  poker,  or  as  a  hammer,  or  as 


WORDS  KNOWN  BY  THEIR  FUNCTIONS.  63 

a  weapon,  so  a  word  may  be  an  adjective,  or  a  noun,  or  a  verb, 
— just  as  it  is  used. 

5.  Examples. — When  we  say,  "He  gave  a  shilling  for  the 
book,"  for  is  a  preposition  connecting  the  noun  book  with  the 
verb  gave.  But  when  we  say,  "  Let  us  assist  them,  for  our  case 
is  theirs,"  the  word  for  joins  two  sentences  together,  and  is  hence 
a  conjunction.  In  the  same  way,  we  can  contrast  early  in  the 
proverb,  "The  early  bird  catches  the  worm,"  and  in  the  sentence 
"  He  rose  early."  Hard  in  the  sentence  "  He  works  hard  "  is  an 
adverb;  in  the  phrase  "A  hard  stone"  it  is  an  adjective.  Right 
is  an  adverb  in  the  phrase  "  Eight  reverend ; "  but  an  adjective 
in  the  sentence  "  That  is  not  the  right  road."  Back  is  an  adverli 
in  the  sentence  "  He  came  back  yesterday ; "  but  a  noun  in  the 
sentence  "  He  fell  on  his  back."  Here  is  an  adverb,  and  where 
an  adverbial  conjunction ;  but  in  the  line — 

"  Thou  losest  here,  a  better  where  to  find," 

Shakespeare  employs  these  words  as  nouns.  They  in  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred,  is  an  adjective ;  but  in  such  phrases  aa 
"  The  more,  the  merrier,"  it  is  an  adverb,  modifying  merrier  and 
more.  Indeed,  some  words  seem  to  exercise  two  functions  at 
the  same  time.     Thus  Tennyson  has — 

"  Slow  and  sure  comes  up  the  golden  year," — 

where  slow  and  sure  may  either  be  adverbs  modifying  comes}  or 
adjectives  marking  year ;  or  both.  This  is  also  the  case  with 
the  participle,  which  is  both  an  adjective  and  a  verb ;  and  with 
the  gerund,  which  is  both  a  verb  and  a  noun. 

6.  Function  or  Form  ? — From  all  this  it  appears  that  we  are 
not  merely  to  look  at  the  form  of  the  word,  we  are  not  merely 
to  notice  and  observe;  but  we  must  think — we  must  ask  our- 
selves what  the  word  does,  what  is  its  function  ?  In  other 
words,  we  must  always — when  trying  to  settle  the  class  to  which 
a  word  belongs — ask  ourselves  two  questions — 

(i)  What  other  word  does  it  go  with  %  and 
(ii)  What  does  \t  do  to  that  word  ? 


63(a) 


WORDS  IN  COMMON  USE,  WITH  DIFFERENT 
FUNCTIONS  (OR  AS  DIFFERENT  PARTS  OF  SPEECH). 


About        1.  Adverb— 

(a)  (Manner) :    He  stopped,  then  turned  him  about. 

(b)  (Degree)  :     The  man  was  about  forty  years  old. 
2.  Preposition      Then  swarmed  they  about  him  like 

bees. 

After         1.  Adjective  And  in  the  after  ages  shall  men  sing 

thy  praise. 

2.  Adverb  "  Be  thus  when  thou  art  dead,  and  I 

will  kill  thee 
m  And  love  thee  after."      (Shakespeare.) 

3.  Preposition       The  boy  ran  after  his  father. 

4.  Conjunction     We  resumed  our  walk  after  the  pro- 

cession had  passed. 

All  1.  Noun  "  I  dare  do  all  that  may  become  a 

man."  (Shakespeare.) 

2.  Adjective — 

(a)  Of  Quantity,  Definite  : 

"  And  all  this  throve,  until  I  wedded 

thee."  (Tennyson.) 

(b)  Of  Number,  Indefinite  : 

"  Ah  '  when  shall  all  men's  good 
Be  each  man's  rule  ? "        (Tennyson.) 

3.  Adverb  "Life  piled  on   life    were   all    too 

little."  (Tennyson.) 

Alone         1.  Adjective  And  he  alone  remains  to  comfort  me. 

2.  Adverb  "  She  never  feared  to  enter  the  church 

alone  at  night."  (Dickens.) 

Another    1.  Noun  Teach  me  another's  griefs  to  share. 

2.  Adjective  "  So  she,  like  many  another  babbler, 

hurt 
Whom  she  would  soothe." 

(Tennyson.) 


WORDS  IN  COMMON  USE,  WITH  DIFFERENT  FUNCTIONS.    63(b) 

Any  1.  Adjective— 

(a)  Of  Quantity  : 

We  fail  to  see  any  truth  in  his  argu- 
ment. 

(b)  Of  Number,  Indefinite  : 

Have  you  any  books  for  me  ? 

2.  Pronoun  (Indefinite) — 

Any  who  have  finished  may  go  now 

3.  Adverb  Can  you  not  write  any  better  ? 

As  1.  Pronoun  (Relative) — 

"  Such  as  sleep  o'  nights." 

(Shakespeare.) 

2.  Adverb  She  is  as  good  as  she  is  beautiful. 

3.  Conjunction  (or  Conjunctive  Adverb) — 

"  I  am  not  all  so  wrong 
As  a  bitter  jest  is  dear."    (Tennyson.) 

Besides      1.  Adverb  He  taught,  and  studied  besides. 

2.  Preposition      I    have    other    strings  to    my  bow 

besides  this. 

3.  Conjunction     The  king  will  pardon  us  ;  besides^  we 

have  your  written  promise. 

Both  1.  Adjective  (Definite  Numeral) — 

"  He  gazed  so  long 
That  both  his  eyes  were  dazzled." 

(Tennyson.) 

2.  Pronoun  (Indefinite) — 

He  carried  away  both. 

But  1.  Noun  You  always  meet  me  with  a  but. 

2.  Pronoun  (Relative,  Negative) — 

"  There  breathes  not  clansman  of  thy 
line 
But  would  have  given  his  life  for 
thine."  (Scott.) 

3.  Verb  "  But  me  no  buts."  (Shakespeare.) 

4.  Adverb  "'Tis  but  a  little  way  that  I  can  bring 

you."  (Shakespeare.) 

5.  Preposition      All  but  Kate  had  gone  out. 

6.  Conjunction     "Knowledge    comes,    but     wisdom 

lingers."  (Tennyson.) 


63(c)  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Either        1.  Adjective  On    either    hand    the    lawns    and 

meadow  ledges  midway  down 
Hang  rich  in  bloom."  (Tennyson.) 

2.  Conjunction     Hither  go  at  once  or  stay  for  ever. 

Else  1.  Adjective  "  Him  destroyed,  all  else  will  follow." 

(Milton.) 

2.  Adverb  He  would  else  have  paid  the  debt. 

3.  Conjunction     She  has  had  many  visitors,  else  she 

would  have  written. 

Enough      1.  Noun  "  Enough  is  as  good  as  a  feast." 

2.  Adjective— 

(a)  Of  Quantity  : 

Have    you    money    enough    for  the 
journey  ? 

(b)  Of  Number,  Indefinite  ; 

We  have  enough  books  already. 

3.  Adverb  He  is  strong  enough  for  this  work. 

Even  1.  Noun  Do  you  know  how  to  play  odd  and 

event 

2.  Adjective  The  edges  are  now  even. 

3.  Verb  It  is  necessary  first  to  even  the  sides. 

4.  Adverb  "  And  even  then  he  turned." 

Except        1.  Verb  When  making  your  list,  except  those 

named  herein. 

2.  Preposition       All  were  early  except  my  brother  and 

me. 

3.  Conjunction     "I  will  not  let  thee  go,  except  thou 

bless  me. " 

For  1.  Preposition       "She  gave  me  for  my  pains,  a  world 

of  sighs."  (Shakespeare.) 

2.  Conjunction  "Call  me  early,  mother  dear, 

For  I  would  see  the  sun  rise. " 

(Tennyson.) 

Half  1.  Noun  "The  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to  the 

poor." 

2.  Adjective  Half  measures  are  worse  than  useless 

in  such  cases. 

3.  Adverb  "So  saying,  from  the  pavement  he 

half  roae."  (Tennyson.) 


WORDS  IN  COMMON  USE,  WITH  DIFFERENT  FUNCTIONS.    63(d) 


Least 


Less 


Like 


Little 


More 


Most 


1.  Noun 

2.  Adjective 

3.  Adverb 

1.  Noun 

2.  Adjective 

3.  Adverb 

1.  Adjective 

2.  Adverb 

3.  Verb  and 

preposition 

4.  Noun 

1.  Noun 


The  least  of  them  would  suffice. 

The  least  child  in  the  room  knows  so 

much. 
This  is  the  least  praiseworthy. 

Give  me  less. 

Of  two  dangers  choose  the  less. 
"  I  warrant  you  love  me  less  than  I 
love  thee."  (Shakespeare.) 

As  like  as  two  peas. 

Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children. 

He  liked  to  fight  like  a  lion. 


Much 


"  His  living  like  saw  never  living  eye." 
"  To  whom  little  is  forgiven,  the  same 
loveth  little." 

2.  Adjective— 

(a)  Of  Quantity : 

He  takes  but  little  heed  of  suoh  idle 
tales. 

(b)  Of  Quality : 

"  A  little  thing  may  harm  a  wounded 
man."  (Tennyson.) 

3.  Adverb  "  A  little  more  than  kin  and  less  than 

kind."  (Shakespeare.) 

1.  Noun  I  need  more  than  you. 

2.  Adjective — 

(a)  Of  Quantity : 

Have    you    no    more    complaint    to 
make? 

(b)  Of  Number,  Indefinite  : 

There  were  more  ants  than  one  could 
count. 

3.  Adverb  "  Once  more  unto  the  breach,  dear 

friends."  (Shakespeare.) 

1.  Noun  The  youngest  boy  knew  most. 

2.  Adjective— 

(a)  Of  Quantity  : 

Most  wool  is  brought  to  London. 

(b)  Of  Number,  Indefinite : 

Most  people  would  prefer  this. 

3.  Adverb  The  Duke  spoke  most  loudly. 

1.  Noun  We  saw  much  which  was  worthy  of 

praise. 


63(e) 


GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


2.  Adjective  (of  Quantity)— 

Portia  needed  much  comfort. 

3.  Adverb  The  wise  speak  less,  but  think  much 

more  than  the  foolish. 
Neither       1.  Adjective        Neither  book  is  very  expensive. 

2.  Conjunction  "  Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be." 
Next  1.  Adjective        The  next  moment  we  lost  sight  of  her. 

Who  comes  next  ? 
Will  you  sit  next  me  ? 


Adjective 
Adverb 
Preposition 
No  1.  Adjective — 

(a)  Of  Quantity : 

Such  people  need  no  encouragement. 

(b)  Of  Number,  Definite  : 

No  books  can  teach  like  experience. 
2.  Adverb  "We    no     longer     believe    in     St. 

Edmund."  (Ruskin.) 

Notwith-     1.  Preposition     Notwithstanding  the  justice  of  your 
standing  plea,  I  cannot  consent. 

2.  Conjunction   Notwithstanding  they  had  arrived,  we 
left  without  seeing  them. 
Off  1.  Adjective        A  gentleman  got  down  from  the  off 

side. 

2.  Adverb  Othello  has  carried  off  my  daughter. 

3.  Preposition    Antonio's    argosy  was    wrecked    off 

Tripolis. 
One  1.  Adjective  (Numeral,  Definite) — 

"All  worldly  joys  go  less,  to  the  one 
j  oy  of  doing  kindnesses."  (Herbert. ) 
2.  Pronoun  (Indefinite)— 

"I    fled  into    the    castle    like    one 
pursued." 
Only1  1.  Adjective        Thou  art  my  only  hope. 

2.  Adverb  She  is  only  a  child. 

3.  Conjunction  You  may  go,  only  return  quickly. 
Other           1.  Adjective        "Among    new    men,  strange    faces, 

Other  minds."  (Tennyson.) 

2.  Pronoun  (Demonstrative) — 

"  Then  that  other,  left  alone, 
Sighed,  and  began  to  gather  heart 
again."  (Tennyson.) 

1  N.B. — Perhaps  no  word  is  so  often  misplaced  in  composition  as  the  word  only.  The 
correct  rule  is  to  place  it  as  near  as  practicable  (not  necessarily  to  the  verb,  but)  to  the 
word  or  phrase  which  it  modifies . 


WORDS  IN  COMMON  USE,  WITH  DIFFERENT  FUNCTIONS.    63(f) 

Bound  1.  Noun  "  The  trivial  round,  the  common  task, 

Will  furnish  all  we  need  to  ask." 

2.  Adjective        He  owns  a  round  table. 

3.  Verb  He  rounds  his  phrases  well. 

4.  Adverb  Round  goes  the  wheel. 

5.  Preposition     A  moat  ran  round  the  castle  wall. 

Save  1.  Verb  Save  the  women  and  children  first. 

2.  Preposition     "  And  save  his  good  broadsword, 

He  weapons  had  none."  (Scott) 

3.  Conjunction   Who  could  do  such  deeds  save  God 

were  with  him  ? 

Since  1.  Adverb  They  have  not  written  since. 

2.  Preposition     She  has  not  been  out   alone  since 

Easter. 

3.  Conjunction  Further  advice  is  useless  since  yog 

are  already  determined  what  to  do. 

So  1.  Adverb  "So  work  the  honey-bees." 

2*  Conjunction  My  father  is  away ;  so  I  must  stay  at 
home  with  mother. 

Some  1.  Adjective — 

(a)  Of  Quantity  : 

w  Whose  least  distinguished  day 
Shines     with     seme     portion     of 
heavenly  lustre." 

(b)  Of  Number,  Indefinite : 

"Some  men  are  born  great." 
2.  Adverb  There  was  an  earthquake  there  some 

four  years  ago. 

Somewhat  1.  Noun  I  know  somewhat  of  the  matter. 

2.  Adverb  You  were  somewhat  late  to-day. 

That  1.  Adjective  (Demonstrative) — 

"  My  loyalty  shall  be  growing, 
Till  death,  that  winter,  kill  it." 

(Shakespeare.) 

2.  Pronoun — 

(a)  Relative       "  He   that  has  humanity  will  tread 

aside." 

(b)  Compound  "  We  speak  that  we  do  know." 

(c)  Demonstrative  : 

"That's  news  indeed." 

3.  Conjunction   "We  eat  that  we  may  live." 


6 3(g)  GKAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Then  1.  Adverb  "  Then  shall  man's  pride  and  dulness 

comprehend 
His  actions',  passions',  being's  use 
and  end." 
2.  Conjunction  Did  he  say  so  ?  then  it  must  be  true. 

Therefore    1.  Adverb  "  God  made  him,  and  therefore  let  him 

pass  for  a  man."  (Shakespeare.) 

2.  Conjunction  (or  Conjunctive  Adverb)— 

"  Thou  hast  not  left  the  value  of  a 
cord, 
Therefore  thou   must   hang  at  the 
State's  charge."  (Shakespeare.) 

Well  1.  Noun  Leave  well  alone. 

2.  Adjective        "  I  am  not  well." 

3.  Adverb  "I  know  how  well  I  have  deserved 

the  ring."  (Shakespeare.) 

4.  Interjection    Well,  peace  be  with  you  ! 

What  1.  Adjective  (Demonstrative) — 

"  And  both  together  heard 
What  time  the  grey-fly  winds  her 
sultry  horn."  (Milton.) 

2.  Pronoun— 

(a)  Interrogative :  "  What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah  ?  " 

(b)  Composite  :  "  Tell  me  what  you  want." 

(c)  Indefinite  demonstrative  :  "  I'll  tell  you  what." 

3.  Adverb  What  with  one  thing,  and  what  with 

another,  I  am  almost  undone. 

4.  Interjection    What!  not  gone  yet? 

Wherefore  1.  Noun  I  wished  to  know  the  wherefore  of  his 

action. 
2.  Adverb  Wherefore  do  ye  rebel  ? 

Whether     1.  Pronoun  (Interrogative) — 

Whether  is  easier  :  to  say  "  Thy  sins 
be  forgiven,"  or  to  say  "Arise 
and  walk"? 
2.  Conjunction  "To  be  resolved  whether  Brutus  so 
unkindly  knocked." 


words  in  common  use,  with  different  functions    63(h) 


Which       1.  Adjective         Did  you  see  which  May  the  boy  ran  ? 
2.  Pronoun — 

(a)  Relative  : 

"  That  which  you  have  touched." 

(b)  Interrogative  : 

"Which  is  yours?" 
Why  1.  Noun  I  don't  consider   the  why  and  the 

wherefore. 

2.  Adverb  Why  are  the  days  longer  in  summer 

than  in  winter  ? 

3.  Conjunction     This  is  the  reason  why  I  spoke. 

4.  Interjection     "  How  doth  the  king  ?    Why,  well !" 
Wont         1.  Noun  "  It  is  not  his  wont  to  be  the  hind- 
most man."  (Shakespeare.) 

2.  Adjective  "Cornel  but  keep  thy  wonted  state." 

(Milton.) 

3.  Verb  "  Beneath  whose  shade 

I  wont  to  sit  and  watch  the  setting 
sun."  (Southey.) 

4.  Participle         "  As  when  men,  wont  to  watch 

On  duty,  sleeping  found  .  .  .  rouse 

and  bestir  themselves."    (Milton). 

Yet  1.  Adverb  "  Old  age  hath  yet  his  honour  and  his 

toil."  (Tennyson.) 

2.  Conjunction    "  Yet  I  thy  hest  will  all  perform  at 
fulL"  (Tennyson.) 


64 


SYNTAX. 


INTKODUCTOEY. 

1.  The  word  Syntax  is  a  Greek  word  which  means  arrange- 
ment. Syntax,  in  grammar,  is  that  part  of  it  which  treats  of 
the  relations  of  words  to  each  other  in  a  sentence. 

2.  Syntax  is  usually  divided  into  two  parts,  which  are  called 
Concord  and  G-overnment. 

(i)  Concord  means  agreement.  The  chief  concords  in  grammar  are 
those  of  the  Verb  with  its  Subject ;  the  Adjective  with  its  Noun ;  one 
Noun  with  another  Noun ;  the  Pronoun  with  the  Noun  it  stands  for  ; 
the  Relative  with  its  Antecedent. 

(ii)  Government  means  the  influence  that  one  word  has  upon  another 
The  chief  kinds  of  Government  are  those  of  a  Transitive  Verb  and 
a  Noun ;  a  Preposition  and  a  Noun. 


I.— SYNTAX    OF    THE    NOUK 

1.— THE  NOMINATIVE  CASE. 

Rule  L — The  Subject  of  a  sentence  is  in  the  Nominative 
Case. 

Thus  we  say,  I  write  ;  John  writes  :  and  both  /  and  John — the  sub- 
jects in  these  two  sentences — are  in  the  nominative  case. 

Rule  IT. — When  one  noun  is  used  to  explain  or  describe 
another,  the  two  nouns  are  said  to  be  in  Apposition ;  and  they 
are  always  in  the  same  case. 


SYNTAX  OF  THE  NOUN.  66 

Thus  we  find  in  Shakespeare's  Henry  V.,  i.  2.  188  : — 

"  So  work  the  honey-bees, 
Creatures  that  by  a  rule  in  Nature  teach 
The  art  of  order  to  a  peopled  kingdom." 

Here  bees  is  the  nominative  to  work  ;  creatures  is  in  apposition  with 
bees,  and  hence  is  also  in  the  nominative  case.  (Of  course,  two  nouns 
in  apposition  may  be  in  the  objective  case,  as  in  the  sentence,  "  We  met 
John  the  gardener.") 

(i)  The  words  in  apposition  may  be  separated  from  each  other,  as  in 
Cowper's  well-known  line  about  the  postman  :— 

"  He  comes,  the  herald  of  a  noisy  world. " 

Rule  III. — The  verb  to  be,  and  other  verbs  of  incomplete  pre- 
dication, take  two  nominatives — one  before  and  the  other  after. 
Thus  we  find  such  sentences  as — 

(i)  General  Wolseley  is  an  able  soldier, 
(ii)  The  long-remembered  beggar  was  his  guest. 
In  the  first  sentence  Wolseley  and  soldier  refer  to  the  same  person  ; 
beggar  and  guest  refer  to  the  same  person  ;  and  all  that  the  verbs  is 
and  was  do  is  to  connect  them.    They  have  no  influence  whatever  upon 
either  word.     When  is  (or  are)  is  so  used,  it  is  called  the  copula. 

t£T  If  we  call  the  previous  kind  of  apposition  noon-apposition,  this  might  be 
called  verb-apposition. 

Rule  IV. — The  verbs  of  incomplete  predication — become, 
live,  turn-out,  prove,  remain,  seem,  look,  and  others,  like  the 
verb  to  be,  take  a  nominative  case  after  them  as  well  as 
before  them. 

Thus  we  find  : — 

(i)  Tom  became  an  architect, 
(ii)  The  boy  is  called  John, 
(iii)  He  turned  out  a  dull  fellow, 
(iv)  She  moves  a  goddess  ;  and  she  looks  a  queen. 
On  examining  the  verbs  in  these  sentences,  it  will  be  seen  that  they 
do  not  and  cannot  govern  the  noun  that  follows  them.     The  noun  be- 
fore and  the  noun  after  designate  the  same  person.     Hence  the  second 
is  called  the  complementary  nominative,  being  necessary  to  complete 
the  subject. 

The  complementary  nominative  also  follows  the  passive  voice  of 
factitive  verbs,  such  as  make,  create,  appoint,  and  verbs  of  naming, 
calling,  etc. 

Rule  V. — A  Noun  and  an  Adjective,  or  a  Noun  and  a  Par- 
ticiple, or  a  Noun  and  an  Adjective  Phrase, — not  syntactically 


66  GRAMMAR   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

connected  with  any  other  word  in  the  sentence, — are  put  in  the 
Nominative  Absolute. 
Thus  we  have  : — 

(i)  "  She  earns  a  scanty  pittance,  and  at  night 

Lies  down  secure,  her  heart  and  pocket  light." — Cowpbr. 

(ii)  The  wind  shifting,  we  sailed  slowly. 

(iii)  "  Next  Anger  rushed,  his  eyes  on  fire. " — Collins. 

(iv)  Dinner  over,  we  went  up-stairs. 

The  word  absolutus  means  freed;  and  the  absolute  case  has  been  freed  from, 
and -is  independent  of,  the  construction  of  the  sentence. 

Eemarks. — 1.  In  the  oldest  English  (or  Anglo-Saxon),  the 
absolute  case  was  the  Dative ;  and  this  we  find  even  as  late  as 
Milton  (1608-1674),  who  says— 

"  Him  destroyed, 

All  else  will  follow." 

2.  Caution!  In  the  sentence,  "Pompey,  having  been  de- 
feated, fled  to  Africa,"  the  phrase  having  been  defeated  is  at- 
tributive to  Pompey,  which  is  the  noun  to  fled.  But,  in  the 
sentence,  "  Pompey  having  been  defeated,  his  army  broke  up," 
Pompey — not  being  the  noun  to  any  verb — is  in  the  nomina- 
tive absolute.  Hence,  if  a  noun  is  the  nominative  to  a  verb, 
it  cannot  be  in  the  nominative  absolute. 

Eemarks  on  Exceptions. 

1.  The  pronoun  It  is  often  used  as  a  Preparatory  Nomina- 
tive, or — as  it  may  also  be  called — a  Representative  Subject. 
Thus  we  say,  "  It  is  very  hard  to  climb  that  hill,"  where  it 
stands  for  the  true  nominative,  to-climb-that-hill. 

2.  In  the  same  way,  the  demonstrative  adjective  that  is  often 
used  as  a  Representative  Subject.  "That  (he  has  gone  to 
Paris)  is  certain."  What  is  certain  1  That.  What  is  that  ? 
The  fact  that  he  has  gone  to  Paris. 

3.  Still  more  oddly,  we  find  both  it  and  that  used  in  one 
sentence  as  a  kind  of  Joint-Representative  Subject.  Thus 
we  have :  (i)  "  It  now  and  then  happened  that  (he  lost  his 
temper)  ; "  and,  in  Shakespeare's  "  Othello  " — 


SYNTAX  OF  THE  NOUN.  67 

(ii)  "  That  (I  have  ta'en  away  this  old  man's  daughter) 
It  is  most  true." 

What  is  most  true  ?  It.  What  is  it  ?  That.  What  is  that  1 l 
That  (I  have  taken  away,  etc.)  Here  the  verb  is  has  really 
three  subjects,  all  meaning  the  same  thing. 

1  i3T  It  must  be  observed  that  the  demonstrative  that  has  by  use  gained  the 
force,  and  exercises  the  function,  of  a  conjunction  joining  two  sentences. 
It  here  joins  the  two  sentences  "It  is  most  true,"  and  "I  have  taken 
away,"  etc. 

4.  The  nominative  to  a  verb  in  the  Imperative  Mood  is  often 
omitted.     Thus  Come  along !  =  Come  thou  (or  ye)  along  ! 


2.^-THE   POSSESSIVE   CASE. 

Rule  VI. — When  one  Noun  stands  in  the  relation  of  an 
attribute  to  another  Noun,  the  first  of  these  nouns  is  put  in 
the  Possessive  Case. 

(i)  The  Possessive  Case  originally  denoted  mere  possession,  as  John's 
book ;  John's  gun.  But  it  has  gradually  gained  a  wider  reference  ;  and 
we  can  say,  "  The  Duke  of  Portland's  funeral,"  etc. 

(ii)  The  objective  case  with  of  =  the  possessive  ;  and  we  can  say, 
"The  might  of  England,"  instead  of  "England's  might." 

Rule  VII. — When  (i)  two  or  more  Possessives  are  in  apposi- 
tion, or  (ii)  when  several  nouns  connected  by  and  are  in  the 
possessive  case,  the  sign  of  the  possessive  is  affixed  to  the 
last  only. 

(i)  Thus  we  find :  (i)  For  thy  servant  David's  sake,  (ii)  Messrs 
Simpkin  &  Marshall's  house. 

g3T  The  fact  is,  that  Messrs  Simpkin-d;- Marshall,  and  other  such  phrases, 

are  regarded  as  one  compound  phrase. 

(ii)  The  sentence,  "This  is  a  picture  of  Turner's,"  =  "This  is  one 
of  Turner's  pictures."  The  of  governs,  not  Turner's,  but  pictures. 
Hence  "of  Turner's"  need  not  be  considered  a  double  possessive, 
though  it  looks  like  it.  So  also  may  be  explained  "  a  friend  of  mine" 
(  =  "one  of  the  friends  of  me"),  but  not  "that  handsome  face  of 
John's"  or  "that  sacred  head  of  thine"  (Milton).  Here  "of  John's" 
and  "  of  thine  "  are  probably  double  possessives — an  idiom  which  was 
used  as  early  as  Chaucer.   Cf.  "an  old  f elawe  ofyoures. "  {Pard.  Tale. ) 


68  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


3.— THE   OBJECTIVE   CASE. 

1.  The  Objective  Case  is  that  case  of  a  noun  or  pronoun 
that  is  "  governed  by  "  a  transitive  verb  or  by  a  preposition. 

J86S"  It  is  only  the  pronoun  that  has  a  special  form  for  this  case. 
The  English  noun  formerly  had  it,  but  lost  it  between  the  years  1066 
and  1300. 

2.  The  Objective  Case  is  the  case  of  the  Direct  Object; 
the  Dative  Case  is  the  case  of  the  Indirect  Object — and 
something  more. 

(i)  The  Direct  Object  answers  to  the  question  Whom  ?  or  What  ? 

(ii)  The  Indirect  Object  answers  to  the  question  To  whom?  To  what? 
or  For  whom  ?  For  what  ? 

3.  The  object  of  an  active-transitive  verb  must  always  be  a 
Noun  or  the  Equivalent  of  a  Noun. 

Eule  VIII. — The  Direct  Object  of  an  Active-Transitive 
Verb  is  put  in  the  Objective  Case. 

Thus  we  read  :  (i)  We  met  the  man  (Noun),  (ii)  We  met  him 
(Pronoun),  (iii)  We  saw  the  fighting  (Verbal  Noun),  (iv)  I  like  to 
work  (Infinitive),     (v)  I  heard  that  he  had  left  (Noun  sentence). 

Rule  IX. — Factitive  Verbs,  such  as  making,  appointing, 
creating,  etc.,  and  verbs  of  naming  and  calling,  take  two  objects. 

Thus  we  say :  (i)  They  made  him  manager,  (ii)  The  Queen 
appointed  him  Treasurer. 

tSST  The    second  is  called  the   complementary  or   factitive   object.    See 
Rule  XXXIII. 

Rule  X. — Some  Intransitive  Verbs  take  an  objective  case 
after  them,  if  the  objective  has  a  similar  or  cognate  meaning 
to  that  of  the  verb  itself. 

Thus  we  find  :   (i)  To  die  the  death,     (ii)  To  sleep  a  sleep,     (iii)  To 
go  one's  way.     To  wend  one's  way.     (iv)  To  run  a  race,     (v)  Dreaming 
dreams  no  mortal  ever  dared  to  dream  before. 
JBT  Such  objects  are  called  cognate  objects. 

Rule  XI. — The  limitations  of  a  Verb  by  words  or  phrases 
expressing   space,  time,   measure,  etc.,  are   said  to  be  in  the 


SYNTAX   OF  THE  NOUN.  69 

objective  case ;  as  (i)  he  walked  three  miles ;  (ii)  he  travelled 
all  night ;  (iii)  the  stone  weighed  three  pounds. 

f3"  1.  Because  these  words  limit  or  modify  the  verbs  to  which  they 
are  attached,  they  are  sometimes  called  Adverbial  Objects. 

2.  The  following  are  adverbial  phrases  of  somewhat  the  same  kind : 
(i)  They  bound  him  hand  and  foot,  (ii)  They  fell  upon  him  tooth  and 
nail,  (iii)  They  turned  out  the  Turks,  bag  and  baggage.  Such 
phrases  are  rightly  called  adverbial,  because  they  modify  bound,  fell, 
and  turned ;  and  show  how  he  was  bound,  how  they  fell  upon  him,  etc. 
Words  used  in  this  way  represent  various  cases  in  Old  English, 
the  genitive,  dative,  accusative,  and  ablative. 

Kbmarks  on  Exceptions. 

1.  The  same  verb  may  be  either  Intransitive  or  Transitive, 
according  to  its  use.     Thus — 

Intransitive.  Transitive. 

(i)  The  soldier  ran  away.  (i)  The  soldier  ran  his  spear  into 

the  Arab, 
(ii)  The  man  works  very  hard.  (ii)  The  master  works  his  men  too 

hard, 
(iii)  We  walked  up  the  huL  (iii)  The  groom  walked  the  horse 

up  the  hill. 

2.  An  Intransitive  verb  performs  the  function  of  a  Transi- 
tive verb  when  a  preposition  is  added  to  it.     Thus — 

Intransitive.  Transitive. 

(i)  The  children  laughed.  (i)  The  children  laughed  at  the  clown, 

(ii)  The  man  spoke.  (ii)  The  man  spoke  of  wild  beasts. 

3.  The  preposition  may  continue  to  adhere  to  such  a  verb, 
so  that  it  remains  even  when  the  verb  has  been  made  passive. 

Thus  we  can  say  :  (i)  He  was  laughed-at  (ii)  Whales  were  spoken-of. 
(iii)  Prosecution  was  hinted-at.  And  this  is  an  enormous  convenience 
in  the  use  of  the  English  language. 


4.— THE   DATIVE   CASE. 

1.  The  Dative  is  the  case  of  the  Indirect  Object. 

Thus  we  say  :  He  handed  her  a  chair.     She  gave  it  me. 


70  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 

2.  The  Dative  is  also  to  be  found  with  certain  impersonal 
verbs,  such  as  list,  seem,  please,  think  (=seem) ;  the  verb 
worth;  and  with  the  prepositions  like  and  near  ("like  me," 
"  near  the  house  ").     Rule  XXXV. 

Thus  we  have  the  phrases,  meseems ;  if  you  please  (  =  if  it  please 
you)  ;  methought  (  =  it  seemed  to  me)  ;  and,  she  is  like  him;  he  was 
near  us. 

"  Woe  worth  the  chase  !  woe  worth  the  day 
That  cost  thy  life,  my  gallant  grey  ! " 

— "  Lady  of  the  Lake." 
"  When  in  Salamanca's  cave 
Him  listed  his  magic  wand  to  wave, 

The  bells  would  ring  in  Notre-Dame." 

— "  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel." 

3.  The  Dative  is  sometimes  the  case  of  possession  or  of 
benefit. 

As  in,  Woe  is  me !     Well  is  thee  ! 

.    "  Fare  thee  well "  ( =  fare  well  for  thyself). 

Rule  XII. — Verbs  of  giving,  promising,  telling,  showing, 
teaching,  asking,  etc.,  take  two  objects;  and  the  indirect 
object  is  put  in  the  dative  case. 

Thus  we  say :  He  gave  her  a  fan.  She  promised  me  a  book.  Tell  us 
a  story.     Show  me  the  picture-book. 

Rule  XIII. — When  such  verbs  are  turned  into  the  passive 
voice,  either  the  Direct  or  the  Indirect  Object  may  be  turned 
into  the  Subject  of  the  Passive  Verb.  Thus  we  can  say 
either — 

Direct  Object  used  as  Subject.  Indirect  Object  used  as  Subject, 

(i)  A  fan  was  given  her.  (i)  She  was  given  a  fan.1 

(ii)  A  book  was  promised  me.  (ii)  I  was  promised  a  book1 

(iii)  A  story  was  told  us.  (iii)  We  were  told  a  story.1 

(iv)  The  picture-  book  was  shown     (iv)  I  was  shown  the  picture-book.1 
me. 

1  This  has  sometimes  been  called  the  Retained  Object.  The  words 
fan,  etc.,  are  in  the  objective  case,  not  because  they  are  governed  by  the 
passive  verbs  was  given,  etc.,  but  because  they  still  retain,  in  a  latent 
form,  the  influence  or  government  exercised  upon  them  by  the  active 
verbs,  give,  promise,  etc. 


SYNTAX  OF  THE  ADJECTIVE.  71 


Remarks  on  Exceptions. 

1.  The  Dative  of  the  Personal  Pronoun  was  in  frequent  use 
in  the  time  of  Shakespeare,  to  add  a  certain  liveliness  and  in* 
terest  to  the  statement. 

Thus  we  find,  in  several  of  his  plays,  such  sentences  as — 
(i)  "  He  plucked  me  ope  his  doublet." 

(ii)  "Villain,  I  say,  knock  me  at  this  gate,  and  rap  me  well." 

(iii)  "  Your  tanner  will  last  you  nine  year." 
Grammarians  call  this  kind  of  dative  the  ethical  dative. 

2.  The  Dative  was  once  the  Absolute  Case. 

"  They  have  stolen  away  the  body,  us  sleeping." 

Wyclifs  Bible. 


II.— SYNTAX    OF    THE    ADJECTIVE. 

1.  In  our  Old  English — the  English  spoken  before  the  coming 
of  the  Normans,  and  for  some  generations  after — every  adjec- 
tive agreed  with  its  noun  in  gender,  number,  and  case ;  and 
even  as  late  as  Chaucer  (1340-1400)  adjectives  had  a  form  for 
the  plural  number.  Thus  in  the  Prologue  to  the  '  Canterbury 
Tales,'  he  writes — 

"  And  smal€  fowles  maken  melodie," 

where  e  is  the  plural  inflexion. 

2.  In  course  of  time,  partly  under  the  influence  of  the  Nor- 
mans and  the  Norman  language,  all  these  inflexions  dropped 
off;  and  there  are  now  only  two  adjectives  in  the  whole  lan- 
guage that  have  any  inflexions  at  all  (except  for  comparison), 
and  these  inflexions  are  only  for  the  plural  number.  The  two 
adjectives  that  are  inflected  are  the  demonstrative  adjectives 
this  and  that,  which  make  their  plurals  in  these  (formerly  thise) 
and  those. 

(1)  The,  which  is  a  broken-down  form  of  that,  never  changes  at  alL 

(ii)  When  an  adjective  is  used  as  a  noun,  it  may  take  a  plural  inflec- 
tion ;  as  the  blacks,  goods,  equals,  edibles,  annuals,  monthlies,  weeklies,  etc. 

3.  Most  adjectives  are  inflected  for  comparison. 

F 


72  GRAMMAR   OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

4.  Every  adjective  is  either  an  explicit  or  an  implicit  predi- 
cate.    The  following  are  examples  : — 

Adjectives  used  as  Explicit  Predicates. 

1.  The  way  was  long ;  the  wind  was  cold. 

2.  The  minstrel  was  infirm  and  old. 

3.  The  duke  is  very  rich. 

Adjectives  used  as  Implicit  Predicates. 

1.  We  had  before  us  a  long  way  and  a  cold  wind. 

2.  The  infirm  old  minstrel  went  wearily  on. 

3.  The  rich  duke  is  very  niggardly. 

5.  When  an  adjective  is  used  as  an  explicit  predicate,  it  is 
daid  to  be  used  predicatively ;  when  it  is  used  as  an  implicit 
predicate,  it  is  said  to  be  used  attributively. 

Adjectives  used  predicatively. 

1.  The  cherries  are  ripe. 

2.  The  man  we  met  was  very  old. 

Adjectives  used  attributively. 

1.  Let  us  pluck  only  the  ripe  cherries. 

2.  We  met  an  old  man. 

Eulb  XIV. — An  adjective  may  qualify  a  noun  or  pronoun 
predicatively,  not  only  after  the  verb  be,  but  after  such  in- 
transitive verbs  as  look,  seem,  feel,  taste,  etc. 

Thus  we  find  :  (i)  She  looked  angry,  (ii)  He  seemed  weary,  (iii)  He 
felt  better,     (iv)  It  tasted  sour,     (v)  He  fell  ill. 

Kule  XV. — After  verbs  of  making,  thinking,  considering, 
etc.,  an  adjective  may  be  used  factitively  as  well  as  predica- 
tively. 

Thus  we  can  say,  (i)  We  made  all  the  young  ones  happy,  (ii)  All 
present  thought  him  odd.     (iii)  We  considered  him  very  clever. 

This  can  be  called  a  complementary  use  of  the  adjective  (see 
Rule  ix). 

Rule  XVI. — An  adjective  may,  especially  in  poetry,  be  used 
as  an  abstract  noun. 

Thus  we  speak  of  "  the  True,  the  Good,  and  the  Beautiful ;  "  "the 
sublime  and  the  ridiculous;"  Mrs  Browning  has  the  phrase,  "from  the 
depths  of  God's  divine  ;  "  and  in  Shakespeare  we  find 
"  Say  what  you  can,  my  false  o'erweighs  your  true." 


SYNTAX  OF  THE   ADJECTIVE.  73 

Rule  XVII. — An  adjective  form  may  be  used  as  an  adverb 

in  poetry. 

Thus  we  find  in  Dr  Johnson  the  line — 

"  Slow  rises  worth,  by  poverty  depressed ;  " 

and  in  Scott — 

"  Trip  it  deft  and  merrily ; " 

and  in  Longfellow— 

"  The  green  trees  whispered  low  and  mild ;  * 

and  in  Tennyson — 

"  And  slow  and  sure  comes  up  the  golden  year." 

(i)  The  reason  for  this  is  that  in  O.  E.  adverbs  were  formed  from  adjectives  by 
adding  e.  Thus  brightS  was  =  brightly,  and  deepe= deeply.  But  in  course  of 
time  the  e  fell  off,  and  an  adverb  was  just  like  its  own  adjective.  Hence  we  still 
have  the  phrases  :  "  He  works  hard ;  "Run  quick  I "  "  Speak  louder  I  "  "Run 
fasti"  "Right  reverend,"  etc. 

(ii)  Shakespeare  very  frequently  uses  adjectives  as  adverbs,  and  has  such  sen- 
tences as :  "  Thou  didst  it  excellent  1'    '"Tis  noble  spoken  !"  and  many  more. 

Rule  XVIII. — A  participle  is  an  adjective,  and  as  such 
agrees  with  its  noun. 

Thus,  in  Pope — 

"  How  happy  is  the  blameless  vestal's  lot, 
The  world  forgetting,  by  the  world  forgot ! " 

where  forgetting,  the  present  active  participle,  and  forgot,  the  past 
passive  participle,  both  agree  with  vestal  ("  the  vestal's  lot"  being  = 
the  lot  of  the  vestal). 

(i)  But  while  a  participle  is  thus  an  adjective,  it  also  retains  one  function  of  a 
verb— the  power  to  govern.  Thus  in  the  sentence,  "Respecting  ourselves,  we 
shall  be  respected  by  the  world,"  the  present  participle  respecting  agrees  with 
we,  and  governs  ourselves. 

Rule  XIX. — The  comparative  degree  is  employed  when 
two  things  or  two  sets  of  things  are  compared ;  the  superla- 
tive when  three  or  more  are  compared. 

Thus  we  say  "  James  is  taller  than  I ;  but  Tom  is  the  tallest  of  the 
three." 

(i)  Than  is  a  dialectic  form  of  then.     "James  is  taller  ;  then  I  (come)." 
(ii)  The  superlative  is  sometimes  used  to  indicate  superiority  to  all  others 
Thus  Shakespeare  says,  "  A  little  ere  the  mightiest  Julius  fell ; "  and  we  use  such 
phrases  as,  "Truest  friend  and  noblest  foe.       This  is  sometimes  called  the 
"  superlative  of  pre-eminence." 

(iii)  Double  comparatives  and  superlatives  were  mueh  used  in  O  E.,  and 
Shakespeare  was  especially  fond  of  them.  He  gives  us  such  phrases  as,  "a 
more  larger  list  of  sceptres,"  "more  better,*'  "more  nearer,"  "most  worst," 
"most  unkindest  cut  of  alL"  etc.     These  cannot  be  employed  now. 


74  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

Eulb  XX. — The  distributive  adjectives  each,  every,  either, 
neither,  go  with  singular  nouns  only. 

Thus  we  say :  (i)  Each  boy  got  an  apple,  (ii)  Every  noun  is  in  its 
place,     (iii)  Either  book  will  do.     (iv)  Neither  woman  went. 

Neither  is  a  dialectic  form  of  nother,  which  was  afterwards  com- 
pressed into  nor.     It  has  altered  under  the  influence  of  either. 

Remarks  on  Exceptions. 

1.  There  are  some  adjectives  that  cannot  be  used  attribu- 
tively, but  only  predicatively.  Such  are  well,  ill,  ware, 
aware,  afraid,  glad,  sorry,  etc.  (But  we  say  "  a  glad  heart," 
and — in  a  different  sense — "  a  sorry  nag.") 

(i)  "We  say  "  He  was  glad  ; "  but  we  cannot  say  "  A  glad  man."  Yet 
Wordsworth  has — 

"  GFlad  sight  whenever  new  and  old 
Are  joined  thro'  some  dear  home-born  tie." 

We  also  speak  of  "  glad  tidings." 

(ii)  We  say  "  He  was  sorry  ;  "  but  if  we  say  "  He  was  a  sorry  man," 
we  use  the  word  in  a  quite  different  sense.  The  attributive  meaning  of 
the  word  is  in  this  instance  quite  different  from  the  predicative. 

2.  The  phrase  "  the  first  two  "  means  the  first  and  second 
in  one  series ;  "  the  two  first "  means  the  first  of  each  of  two 

series. 


III.— SYNTAX    OF    THE    PRONOUN. 

Rule  XXI. — Pronouns,  whether  personal  or  relative,  must 
agree  in  gender,  number,  and  person  with  the  nouns  for 
which  they  stand,  but  not  (necessarily)  in  case. 

Thus  we  say :    "  I  have  lost  my  umbrella :  it  was  standing  in  the 
corner. " 

(i)  Here  it  is  neuter,  singular,  and  third  person,  because  umbrella  is  neuter, 
singular,  and  third  person. 

(ii)  Umbrella  is  in  the  objective  case  governed  by  have  lost;  but  it  is  in  the 
nominative,  because  it  is  the  subject  to  its  own  verb  was  standing. 

Rule  XXII. — Pronouns,  whether  personal  or  relative,  take 
their  case  from  the  sentence  in  which  they  stand. 


SYNTAX  OF  THE   PRONOUN.  75 

Thus  we  say  :  "  The  sailor  whom  we  met  on  the  beach  is  ilL"  Here 
sailor  is  in  the  nominative,  and  whom,  its  pronoun,  in  the  objective. 

(i)  Whom  ia  in  the  objective,  because  it  is  governed  by  the  verb  met  in  its 
own  sentence.  "The  sailor  is  ill"  is  one  sentence.  "Him  (whom=and  him) 
we  met "  is  a  second  sentence. 

(ii)  The  relative  may  be  governed  by  a  preposition,  as  "  The  man  on  whom  I 
relied  has  not  disappointed  me." 

Rule  XXIII. — Who,  whom,  and  whose  are  used  only  of 
rational  beings;  which  of  irrational;  that  may  stand  for 
nouns  of  any  kind. 

(i)  In  poetry,  whose  may  be  used  for  of  which.  Thus  "Wordsworth,  in 
the  '  Laodamia,'  has — 

"  In  worlds  whose  course  is  equable  and  pure." 

Rule  XXIV. — The  possessives  mine,  thine,  ours,  yours,  and 
theirs  are  used  when  a  verb  separates  the  possessive  and  the 
qualified  noun ;  or  when  the  noun  is  not  expressed ;  or  after  "  of." 

Thus  we  say :  "  This  13  mine. "  "  Mine  is  larger  than  that  of  yours. " 
But  mine  and  thine  are  used  for  my  and  thy  before  a  noun  in  poetry 
and  impassioned  prose :  ' '  Who  knoweth  the  power  of  thine  anger  ?  " 

Rule  XXV. — After  such,  same,  so  much,  so  great,  etc, 
the  relative  employed  is  not  who,  but  as. 
Thus  Milton  has— 

"  Tears  such  as  angels  weep." 

(i)  Shakespeare  uses  as  even  after  that — 

"  Th»t  kind  of  fruit  as  maids  call  medlars." 
This  usage  cannot  now  be  employed. 

N.  B.  — The  main  use  of  the  Relative  Pronoun  is  restrictive,  that  is,  to 
hmit  the  antecedent.  It  has  also  a  conjunctive  use,  to  introduce  an 
additional  statement :  I  met  a  friend,  who  knew  me  at  once.  Who 
and  which  are  both  so  used  ;  but  that  is  never  used  as  a  conjunctive. 


Remarks  on  Exceptions. 

1.  The  antecedent  to  the  relative  may  be  omitted. 
Thus  we  find,  in  Wordsworth's  "  Ode  to  Duty  "— 

"There  are  ^  who  ask  not  if  thine  eye 
Be  on  them." 


T6  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

2.  The  relative  itself  may  be  omitted. 
(i)  Thus  Shelley  has  the  line — 

"  Men  must  reap  the  things  A  they  sow. " 

(ii)  And  such  phrases  as,  "  Is  this  the  book  A  you  wanted  ? "  are  very 
common. 

3.  The  word  but  is  often  used  for  who + not.     It  is  some- 
times called  the  negative-relative. 

Thus  Scott  has— 

"  There  breathes  not  clansman  of  my  line 
But  (  =  who  not)  would  have  given  his  life  for  mine." 

4.  The  personal  pronouns,  when  in  the  dative  or  objective 
case,  are  generally  without  emphasis. 

(i)  If  we  say  "  Give  me  your  hand,"  the  me  is  unemphatic.  If  we  say 
"  Give  me  your  hand  ! "  the  me  has  a  stronger  emphasis  than  the  give, 
and  means  me,  and  not  any  other  person. 

(ii)  Very  ludicrous  accidents  sometimes  occur  from  the  misplacing  ol 
the  accent.  Thus  a  careless  reader  once  read :  "  And  he  said,  '  Saddle 
me  the  ass;'  and  they  saddled  him."  Nelson's  famous  signal,  "Eng- 
land expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty,"  was  once  altered  in  em« 
phasis  with  excellent  effect.  A  midshipman  on  board  one  of  H.M.'a 
ships  was  very  lazy,  and  inclined  to  allow  others  to  do  his  work;  and  the 
question  went  round  the  vessel :  "  Why  is  Mr  So-and-so  like  England  ?  ' 
"Because  he  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty." 


IV.— SYNTAX    OE    THE   VERB. 
1.— CONCORD   OF  VERBS. 

We  cannot  say  I  writes,  or  He  or  The  man  write.  We  always  say  /  write, 
He  writes,  and  The  man  writes.  In  other  words,  certain  pronouns  and 
nouns  require  a  certain  form  of  a  verb  to  go  with  them.  If  the  pronoun 
is  of  the  first  person,  then  the  verb  will  have  a  certain  form  ;  if  it  is  of  the 
third  person,  it  will  have  a  different  form.  If  the  noun  or  pronoun  is  sing- 
ular, the  verb  will  have  one  form ;  if  it  is  plural,  it  may  have  another  form. 
In  these  circumstances,  the  verb  is  said  to  agree  with  its  subject. 

All  these  facts  are  usually  embodied  in  a  general  statement,  which  may 
also  serve  as  a  rule. 

Bulb  XX VI. — A  Finite  Verb  must  agree  with  its  subject 


SYNTAX   OF  THE  VERB.  77 

in  Number  and  Person.     Thus  we  say :   "  He  calls,"  "  They 

walk." 

(i)  The  subject  answers  to  the  question  Who  ?  or  What  ? 

(ii)  The  subject  of  a  finite  verb  is  always  in  the  nominative  case. 

Or  and  nor  are  conjunctions  which  do  not  add  the  things  mentioned 
to  each  other,  but  allow  the  mind  to  take  them  separately — the  one 
excluding  the  other.     We  may  therefore  say  : — 

Rule  XXVII. — Two  or  more  singular  nouns  that  are  subjects, 
connected  by  or  or  nor,  require  their  verb  to  be  in  the  singular. 
Thus  we  say  :  "  Either  Tom  or  John  is  going."  "  It  was  either 
a  roe-deer  or  a  large  goat ! " 

On  the  other  hand,  when  two  or  more  singular  nouns  are  connected 
by  and,  they  are  added  to  each  other  ;  and,  just  as  one  and  one  make 
two,  so  two  singular  nouns  are  equal  to  one  plural.  We  may  therefore 
lay  down  the  following  rule  : — 

Rule  XXYIII. — Two  or  more  singular  nouns  that  are  sub- 
jects, connected  by  and,  require  their  verb  to  be  in  the  plural. 
We  say:  "Tom  and  John  are  going."  "There  were  a  roe- 
deer  and  a  goat  in  the  field." 

Cautions. — (i)  The  compound  conjunction  as  well  as  does  not  require 
a  plural  verb,  because  it  allows  the  mind  to  take  each  subject  separately. 
Thus  we  say,  "Justice,  as  well  as  mercy,  allows  it."  We  can  see  the 
truth  of  this  remark  by  transposing  the  clauses  of  the  sentence,  and 
saying,  "Justice  allows  it,  as  well  as  mercy  [allows  it]." 

(ii)  The  preposition  with  cannot  make  two  singular  subjects  into  one 
pluraL  We  must  say,  "The  Mayor,  with  his  attendants,  was  there." 
Transposition  will  show  the  force  of  this  remark  also  :  "  The  Mayor  was 
there  with  his  attendants." 

Rule  XXIX. — Collective  Nouns  take  a  singular  verb  or 
a  plural  verb,  as  the  notion  of  unity  or  of  plurality  is  upper- 
most in  the  mind  of  the  speaker.  Thus  we  say  :  "  Parliament 
was  dissolved."     "  The  committee  are  divided  in  opinion." 

(i)  When  two  or  more  singular  nouns  represent  one  idea,  the  verb  is 
singular.     Thus,  in  Milton's  "  Lycidas,"  we  find — 

"  Bitter  constraint  and  sad  occasion  dear 
Compels  me  to  disturb  your  season  due." 


78  GRAMMAR   Of  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

And,  in  Shakespeare's  "Tempest"  (v.  104),  we  read — 

"  All  torment,  trouble,  wonder,  and  amazement 
Inhabits  here." 

In  this  case  we  may  look  upon  the  statement  as  =  "  A  condition  which 
embraces  all  torment,"  etc. 

(ii)  When  the  verb  precedes  a  number  of  different  nominatives,  it  is 
often  singular.  The  speaker  seems  not  to  have  yet  made  up  his  mind 
what  nominatives  he  is  going  to  use.  Thus,  in  the  well-known  passage 
in  Byron's  "  Childe  Harold  "  we  have — 

"  Ah !  then  and  there  was  hurrying  to  and  fro, 
And  gathering  tears,  and  tremblings  of  distress." 

And  so  Shakespeare,  in  "  Julius  Caesar,"  makes  Brutus  say,  "  There  is 
tears  for  his  love,  joy  for  his  fortune,  honour  for  his  valour,  and  death 
for  his  ambition."  And,  in  the  same  way,  people  say,  "  Where  is  my 
hat  and  stick  ? " 

Rule  XXX. — The  verb  to  be  is  often  attracted  into  the  same 
number  as  the  nominative  that  follows  it,  instead  of  agreeing 
with  the  nominative  that  is  its  true  subject.  Thus  we  find  : 
"The  wages  of  sin  is  death."  "To  love  and  to  admire  has 
been  the  joy  of  his  existence."  "A  high  look  and  a  proud 
heart  is  sin." 


2.— GOVERNMENT   OF  VERBS. 

Rule  XXXL — A  Transitive  Verb  in  the  active  voice 
governs  its  direct  object  in  the  objective  case.  Thus  we  say  : 
"  I  like  him ;  "  "  they  dislike  her." 

The  following  sub-rules  are  of  some  importance  : — 

(i)  The  participle,  which  is  an  adjective,  has  the  same  governing 
power  as  the  verb  of  which  it  is  a  part — as,  "  Seeing  the  rain,  I  remained 
at  home  " — where  seeing  agrees  with  I  as  an  adjective,  and  governs 
rain  as  a  verb. 

(ii)  The  gerund,  which  is  a  noun,  has  the  same  governing  power  as 
the  verb  to  which  it  belongs.  Thus  we  say  :  "  Hating,  one's  neighbour  is 
forbidden  by  the  Gospel,"  where  hating  is  a  noun,  the  nominative  to 
is  forbidden,  and  a  gerund  governing  neighbour  in  the  objective. 

Rule  XXXIL — Active-transitive  Verbs  of  giving,  promis- 
ing, offering,  and  suchlike,  govern  the  Direct  Object  in  the 


SYNTAX  OF  THE  VERB.  79 

objective  case,  and  the  Indirect  Object  in  the  dative.     "  J 
gave  him  an  apple."     "He  promises  me  a  book." 

(i)  In  turning  these  active  verbs  into  passive,  it  is  the  direct  object 
that  should  be  turned  into  the  subject  of  the  passive  verb  ;  and  we 
ought  to  say,  "  An  apple  was  given  me. "  But  custom  allows  of  either 
mode  of  change ;  and  we  also  say,  " I  was  given  an  apple  ; "  "I  was 
promised  a  book."  Dr  Abbott  ealls  the  objectives  apple  and  book 
retained  objects,  because  they  are  retained  in  the  sentence,  even 
although  we  know  that  no  passive  verb  can  govern  an  objective  case 

Rule  XXXIII. — Such  verbs  as  make,  create,  appoint, 
think,  believe,  etc.,  govern  two  objects — the  one  direct,  the 
other  complementary.  Thus  we  say :  "  They  made  him  king ; " 
"the  king  appointed  him  governor ;"  "we  thought  her  a 
clever  woman." 

(i)  The  second  of  these  objectives  remains  with  the  passive  verfy 
when  the  form  of  the  sentence  has  been  changed  ;  and  we  say,  "  He 
was  made  king  ; "  "he  was  appointed  governor. "  But  the  old  objec- 
tives king  and  governor  have  now  become  subjective  or  complemen- 
tary nominatives. 

Rule  XXXIV. — One  verb  governs  another  in  the  Infinitive. 
Or, 

The  Infinitive  Mood  of  a  verb,  being  a  pure  noun,  may  be 
the  object  of  another  verb,  if  that  verb  is  active-transitive. 
Thus  we  say  :  "  I  saw  him  go  ;  "  "  we  saw  the  ship  sink  ;  " 
"  I  ordered  him  to  write." 

(i)  In  the  first  two  sentences,  him  and  ship  are  the  subjects  of  go 
and  sink.  But  the  subject  of  an  infinitive  is  always  in  the"  objective 
case.  The  infinitives  go  and  sink  have  a  double  face.  They  are  verbs 
in  relation  to  their  subjects  him  and  go  ;  they  are  nouns  in  relation  to 
the  verbs  that  govern  them. 

(ii)  In  the  sentence,  "  I  ordered  him  to  write,"  him  is  in  the  dative 
case;  and  the  sentence  is  =  "I  ordered  writing  to  him."  To  write  is 
the  direct  object  of  ordered. 

(iii)  Conclusion  from  the  above :  An  Infinitive  is  always  a  noun, 
whether  it  be  a  subject  or  an  object.  It  is  (a)  a  subject  in  the 
sentence,  "To  play  football  is  pleasant."  It  is  (6)  an  object  in  the 
sentence,  "I  like  to  play  football " 

Rule    XXXV. — Some  Verbs   are  followed  by  the  Dative 


80  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

Case.     Thus  we  have  " Methought"  "meseems"  "Woe  worth 

the  day!"  "Woewme!"  "  If  you  please  !  "  (Rule  XI.) 

(i)  Worth  is  the  imperative  of  an  old  English  verb,  weorthan,  to 
become.     (The  German  form  of  this  verb  is  werden.) 

(ii)  Shakespeare  even  construes  the  verb  look  with  a  dative  (some- 
times called  the  ethic  dative  or  dative  of  interest).  In  "  Cymbeline,' 
iii.  5,  32,  he  has — 

She  looks,  us  like 
A  thing  more  made  of  malice,  than  of  duty. 

3.— MOODS    OF   VERBS. 

1.  The  Indicative  Mood  is  the  mood  of  direct  assertion  or  statement, 
and  it  speaks  of  actual  facts.  The  Subjunctive  Mood  is  the  mood  of  as- 
sertion also,  but  with  a  modification  given  to  the  assertion  by  the  mind 
through  which  it  passes.  If  we  use  the  term  dbjective  as  describing  what 
actually  exists  independently  of  our  minds,  and  subjective  as  describing 
that  which  exists  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker, — whether  ib  really  exists 
outside  or  not, — we  can  then  say  that — 

(i)  The  Indicative  Mood  is  the  mood  of  objective  assertion. 

(ii)  The  Subjunctive  Mood  is  the  mood  of  subjective  assertion. 

The  Indicative  Mood  may  be  compared  to  a  ray  of  light  coming  straight 
through  the  air;  the  Subjunctive  Mood  to  the  effect  produced  by  the  water  on 
the  same  ray — the  water  deflects  it,  makes  it  form  a  quite  different  angle,  and 
hence  a  stick  in  the  water  looks  broken  or  crooked. 

2.  The  Imperative  Mood  is  the  mood  of  command  or  of  request. 

3.  The  Infinitive  Mood  is  the  substantive  mood  or  noun  of  the 
verb.  It  is  always  equal  to  a  noun ;  it  is  always  either  a  subject  or  an 
object ;  and  hence  it  is  incapable  of  making  any  assertion. 

4.  The  old  form  of  the  Subjunctive  Mood  has  practically  fallen  into 
disuse.  Few  writers,  and  still  fewer  speakers,  use  it.  Good  writers 
are  even  found  to  say,  "If  he  was  here,  I  should  tell  him."  But  a 
knowledge  of  the  uses  of  the  subjunctive  mood  is  necessary  to  enable 
us  to  understand  English  prose  and  verse  anterior  to  the  present  gener- 
ation. Even  so  late  as  the  year  1817,  Jane  Austen,  one  of  the  best 
prose-writers  of  last  century,  used  the  old  subjunctive  form  in  almost 
every  dependent  clause.  Not  only  does  she  use  it  after  if  and  though, 
but  after  such  conjunctions  as  till,  until,  because,  and  others. 

JIule  XXXVI. — The  Subjunctive  Mood  is  used — and 
must  be  used — to  express  doubt,  possibility,  supposition, 
consequence  (which  may  or  may  not  happen),  or  wish,  all  as 
moods  of  the  mind  of  the  speaker. 


SYNTAX   OF  THE  VERB.  81 

(i)  "'  Come  weal,  come  woe,  by  Bruce's  side,' 

Replied  the  chief,  '  will  Donald  bide. ' "    (Doubt. ) 
(ii)   "  Buy  us  a  little  food,  that  we  die  not."    (Purpose.) 

(iii)  "  Yet  if  one  heart  throb  higher  at  its  sway, 

The  wizard  note  has  not  been  touched  in  vain."     (Supposition.) 

(iv)  "  Get  on  your  night-gown,  lest  occasion  call  us 
And  show  us  to  be  watchers."     (Consequence.) 

(v)  "  I  would  my  daughter  were  dead  at  my  foot,  and  the  jewels  in  her 
ear  ! "     (Wish.) 

t3T  In  all  of  the  above  sentences,  the  clauses  with  subjunctives  do  not  state  facts, 
but  feelings  or  notions  of  what  may  or  might  be. 

Rule  XXXVII. — The  Subjunctive  Mood,  being  a  subjoined 
mood,  is  always  dependent  on  some  other  clause  antecedent 
in  thought,  and  generally  also  in  expression.  The  antecedent 
clause,  which  contains  the  condition,  is  called  the  conditional 
clause ;  and  the  clause  which  contains  the  consequence  of  the 
supposition  is  called  the  consequent  clause. 

(i)  If  it  were  so,  it  was  a  grievous  fault. 
Condition.  Consequence. 

(ii)  If  it  were  done  when  'tis  done, 
Condition. 

Then  'twere  well  it  were  done  quickly. 
Consequence. 

Remarks  on  Exceptions. 

1.  Sometimes  the  conditional  clause  is  suppressed.  Thus  we 
can  say,  "  I  would  not  endure  such  language "  [if  it  were  ad- 
dressed to  me  =  conditional  clause]. 

2.  The  conjunction  is  often  omitted.  Thus,  in  Shakespeare's 
play  of  "  Julius  Caesar,"  we  find — 

"  Were  I  Brutus, 
And  Brutus  Antony,  there  were  an  Antony 
"Would  ruffle  up  your  spirits." 

Rule  XXXVIII. — The  Simple  Infinitive — without  the  sign 
to — is  used  with  auxiliary  verbs,  such  as  may,  do,  shall,  will, 
etc. ;  and  with  such  verbs  as  let,  bid,  can,  must,  see,  hear, 
make,  feel,  observe,  have,  know,  etc. 


82  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

(i)  Let  darkness  keep  her  raven  gloss. 

(ii)  Bid  the  porter  come. 
(iii)  I  saw  him  run  after  a  gilded  butterfly, 
(iv)  "We  heard  him  cry. 

(v)  They  made  him  go,  etc.,  etc. 

It  was  the  Danes  who  introduced  a  preposition  before  the  infinitive. 
Their  sign  was  at,  which  was  largely  used  with  the  infinitive  in  the 
Northern  dialect. 

Rule  XXXIX. — The  Gerund  is  both  a  noun  and  a  verb. 
As  a  noun,  it  is  governed  by  a  verb  or  preposition ;  as  a 
verb  (if  transitive),  it  governs  other  nouns  or  pronouns. 

There  are  two  gerundial  forms — (i)  one  with  to  ;  and  (ii)  one 
that  ends  in  ing. 

(i)  The  first  is  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  ordinary  in- 
finitive. Now  the  ordinary  infinitive  never  expresses  a  purpose;  the 
gerundial  form  with  to  almost  always  does.     Thus  we  find — 

"And  fools  who  came  to  scoff  remained  to  pray." 

(ii)  The  gerund  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  present  participle  in 
ing,  and  very  carefully  from  the  abstract  noun  of  the  same  form.  The 
/present  participle  in  ing,  as  loving,  hating,  walking,  etc.,  is  always  an 
adjective,  agreeing  with  a  noun  or  pronoun.  The  gerund  in  ing  is 
always  a  noun,  and  may  govern  an  object.  "  He  was  very  fond  of  playing 
cricket."  Here  playing  is  a  noun  in  relation  to  of;  and  a  verb  govern- 
ing cricket  in  the  objective.  In  the  words  walking-stick,  frying-pan,  etc., 
walking  and  frying  are  nouns,  and  therefore  gerunds.  If  they  were  ad- 
jectives and  participles,  the  compounds  would  mean  the  stick  that  walks, 
the  pan  that  fries. 

(iii)  The  gerund  in  ing  must  also  be  distinguished  from  the  verba} 
noun  in  ing,  which  is  a  descendant  of  the  verbal  noun  in  ung.  "  He 
went  a  hunting"  (where  a=the  old  an  or  on)  ;  "Forty  and  six  years 
was  this  temple  in  building  ; "  "  He  was  very  impatient  during  the 
reading  of  the  will."  In  these  sentences  hunting,  building,  and  read- 
ing are  all  verbal  nouns,  derived  from  the  old  verbal  noun  in  ung,  and 
are  called  abstract  nouns.  But  if  we  say,  "  He  is  fond  of  hunting  deer; " 
"He  is  engaged  in  building  a  hotel;"  "He  likes  reading  poetry," — then 
the  three  words  are  gerunds,  for  they  act  as  verbs,  and  govern  the  three 
objectives,  deer,  hotel,  and  poetry. 

Rule  XL. — The  Gerundial  Infinitive  is  frequently  con- 
strued with  nouns  and  adjectives.     Thus  we  say :   "A  house 


SYNTAX  OF  THE  ADVERB — AND  PREPOSITION.  83 

to  seU  or  let;"    "Wood  to  burn;"    "Deadly  to  hear,  and 
deadly  to  tell ; "  "  Good  to  eat." 


V.—  SYNTAX    OF    THE   ADYERB. 

Rule  XLI. — The  Adverb  ought  to  be  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  word  it  modifies.  Thus  we  ought  to  say,  "  He  gave  me 
only  three  shillings,"  and  not  "  He  only  gave  me  three  shil- 
lings," because  only  modifies  three,  and  not  gave. 

This  rule  applies  also  to  compound  adverbs,  such  as  at  least,  in  like 
manner,  at  random,  in  part,  etc. 

Rule  XLII. — Adverbs  not  only  modify  verbs,  adjectives, 

and  other  adverbs,  but  also  prepositions,  conjunctions,  and 

even  nouns.     Thus  we  have  the  combinations  out  from,  up 

to,  down  to,  etc. 

In  the  sentence,   "He  walked  up  to  me,"  the  adverb  up  does  not 
modify  loalked,  but  the  prepositional  phrase  to  me. 


VI.— SYNTAX    OF    THE    PREPOSITION. 

Rule  XLIII.  —  All  prepositions  in  the  English  language 
govern  nouns  and  pronouns  in  the  objective  case. 

The  prepositions  save  and  except  are  really  verbs  in  the  imperative 
mood. 

Rule  XLIY. — Prepositions  generally  stand  before  the  words 
they  govern ;  but  they  may,  with  good  effect,  come  after  them. 
Thus  we  find  in  Shakespeare — 

"  Ten  thousand  men  that  fishes  gnawed  upon." 
"  Why,  then,  thou  knowest  what  colour  jet  is  of." 

And,  in  Hooker,  with  very  forcible  effect — 

"  Shall  there  be  a  God  to  swear  by,  and  none  to  pray  to  ?  " 

Rule  XLY. — Certain  verbs,  nouns,  and  adjectives  require 
special  prepositions.  Thus  we  cannot  say,  "  This  is  different 
to  that,"  because  it  is  bad  English  to  say  "  This  differs  to  that." 
The  proper  preposition  in  both  instances  is  from. 


84 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


The  following  is  a  list  of  some  of  these 
Special  prepositions: — 


Absolve  from. 

Abhorrence  for. 

Accord  with. 

Acquit  of. 

Affinity  between  (or  for). 

Adapted  to  (intentionally). 

Adapted  for  (by  nature). 

Agree  with  (a  person). 

Agree  to  (a  proposal). 

Bestow  upon. 

Change  for  (a  thing). 

Change  with  (a  person). 

Confer  on  ( =  give  to). 

Confer  with  (  =  talk  with). 

Confide  in  (  =  trust  in). 

Confide  to  (  =  in  trust  to). 

Conform  to. 

In  conformity  with. 

Comply  with. 

Convenient  to  (a  person). 

Convenient  for  (a  purpose). 

Conversant  with. 

Correspond  with  (a  person). 

Correspond  to  (a  thing). 

Dependent  on  (but  independent  of). 


Derogatory  to. 

Differ  from  (a  statement  or  opinion). 

Differ  with  (a  person). 

Different  from. 

Disappointed  of  (what  we  cannot 

get). 
Disappointed    in  (what  we    have 

got). 
Dissent  from. 
Exception  from  (a  rule). 
Exception  to  (a  statement). 
Glad  of  (a  possession). 
Glad  at  (a  piece  of  news). 
Involve  in. 
Martyr  for  (a  cause). 
Martyr  to  (a  disease). 
Need  of  or  for. 
Part  from  (a  person). 
Part  with  (a  thing). 
Profit  by. 

Reconcile  to  (a  person). 
Reconcile  with  (a  statement). 
Taste  of  (food). 
A  taste  for  (art). 
Thirst  for  or  after  (knowledge). 


VII.— SYNTAX    OF    THE    CONJUNCTION. 

Rule  XL VI. — The  Conjunction  does  not  interfere  with  the 
action  of  a  transitive  verb  or  preposition,  nor  with  the  mood  or 
tense  of  a  verb. 

(i)  This  rule  is  usually  stated  thus  :  "  Conjunctions  generally  connect 
the  same  cases  of  nouns  and  pronouns,  and  the  same  moods  and  tenses 
of  verbs,  as  '  We  saw  him  and  her,'  '  Let  either  him  or  me  go  ! '  "  But 
it  is  plain  that  saw  governs  her  as  well  as  him;  and  that  or  cannot 
interfere  with  the  government  of  let.  Such  a  rule  is  therefore  totally 
artificial. 

(ii)  It  is  plain  that  the  conjunction  and  must  make  two  singulars  = 
one  plural,  as  "  He  and  I  are  of  the  same  age." 


Rule  XL VII. — Certain  adjectives  and  conjunctions  take 


SYNTAX  OF  THE   CONJUNCTION.  85 

after  them  certain  special  conjunctions.  Thus,  such  (adj.) 
requires  as,  both  (adj.),  and;  so  and  as  require  as;  though, 
yet;  -whether,  or;  either,  or;  neither,  nor;  nor,  nor;  or, 
or.     The  following  are  a  few  examples  : — 

(i)  "  Would  I  describe  a  preacher  such  as  Paul ! " 

(ii)  "  Though  deep,  yet  clear  ;  though  gentle,  yet  not  dull" 

Rule  XLVIII. — The  subordinating  conjunction  that  may  be 
omitted.  Thus  we  can  say,  "  Are  you  sure  he  is  here  1 " 
Shakespeare  has,   "  Yet  Brutus  says  he  was  ambitious  ! " 


85(a) 


EXAMPLES  OF  FALSE,  DOUBTFUL,  AND  GENUINE 
SYNTAX  FOR  CORRECTION  OR  DEFENCE. 

[Not  all  the  examples  given  below  contain  false  syntax.  Some  do 
exemplify  sheer  blunders ;  these  should  be  corrected,  and 
reason  for  correction  should  be  given.  Some  contain  instances 
of  doubtful  usage ;  these  should  either  be  corrected,  or  good 
reasons  should  be  given  for  accepting  them  as  they  stand.  Some 
instances  of  correct  usage  occur ;  it  should  be  explained  how 
or  why  these  are  correct.  The  last  two  classes  are  marked  by  an 
asterisk.  Very  brief  hints  are  given  for  the  explanation  of 
some  of  the  passages.  The  figures  at  the  end  of  others  refer 
to  the  pages  of  this  book.] 

1.  Homer,  as  well  as  Vergil,  were  studied  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine 
(77). 

2.  He  was  a  man  of  ability  and  who  never  spared  himself. 

[Analyse  this  sentence,  and  the  error — a  very  common  one — is 
obvious.  ] 

3.  Nothing  but  serious  studies  delight  him. 

4.  Without  you  agree,  nothing  can  be  done. 

[It  is  doubtful  whether  "without"  can  be  used  as  a  conjunction 
in  good  modern  prose.  It  is  noty  however,  doubtful  that 
"like"  {e.g.  "like  I  did")  cannot  be  used  as  a  conjunction.] 

5.  He  promised  much  to  whomsoever  would  assist  him  (64). 

6.  Men  are  put  in  the  plural  number,  because  they  mean  many. 

[What  is  the  true  nominative  here  ?] 

7.  We  sorrow  not  as  them  that  have  no  hope. 

8.  He  was  vexed  at  me  quitting  the  house. 

[What  part  of  the  verb  is  "quitting " ?    A  participle  or  gerund ?] 

9.  She  fell  a-laughing  like  one  out  of  their  right  mind.  • 

10.  He  had  then  three  alternatives  before  him. 

[What  is  the  derivation  of  "  alternative  "  ?] 

11.  This  doctrine  was  held  by  one  of  the  greatest  minds  that  has  ever 
existed. 

["One  "of  what?] 


EXAMPLES  OF  FALSE,  DOUBTFUL,  AND  GENUINE  SYNTAX.  85(b) 

12.  Those  sort  of  books  are  useless  (76-7). 

13.  In  France  the  peasantry  goes  barefoot. 

[Which  idea  is  uppermost — that  of  plurality  or  singularity  ?] 
*14.  The  crew  were  all  to  pieces. 
*13.  The  crew  was  pulling  as  one  man. 
*16.  Art  thou  the  mau  that  comest  from  Egypt?  (74). 
17.  They  who  have  the  courage  always  to  speak  the  truth  choose  for 
thy  friends. 

[How  has  "they  "  crept  in ?] 
*18.  Not  enjoyment  and  not  sorrow  is  our  destined  end  or  way. 

[Are  "enjoyment"  and    "sorrow"  thought  of  separately  or 
together  ?] 
*19.  Bitter  constraint  and  sad  occasion  dear 

Compels  me  to  disturb  yfcur  season  due. 
*20.  He  is  stronger  than  me. 

[Milton  has  "than  whom,"  and  cf.  Pope,  Sat.  viii.  275. 
"And  lin'd  with  Giants  mightier  than  'em  all."] 
*21.  Which  of  these  do  you  like  best  ? 

[What  would  have  to  be  done  if  "  two  "  followed  ' '  these  "  ?] 
*22.  And  many  a  holy  text  around  she  strews, 

That  teach  the  rustic  moralist  to  die. 
[See  query  on  13.] 

23.  What  art  thou,  speak,  that  on  designs  unknown, 
While  others  sleep,  thus  range  the  camp  alone? 

[Cf.  Example  16.] 

24.  Sense,  and  not  riches,  win  esteem. 

*25.  About  an  eight  days  after  these  sayings. 

[Cf.  "a  fortnight,"  " a  sennight."] 
26.  I  knew  it  to  be  he. 

[What  case  is  "it"?] 
*27.  They  all  slept  sound  save  she  who  loved  them  both. 
[Cf.  God  and  his  Son  except, 

Created  thing  naught  valued  he  nor  shunned  (Milton). 
And  Shakespeare's — "All  the  conspirators  save  only  he." 
Is  "save"  to  be  considered  as  a  preposition?     See  p.  65,  Rule  v.] 
*28.  They  are  the  two  first  boys  in  the  class. 

[Is  there  more  than  one  "  first  "  boy  ?    But  cf.  Example  222.] 
*29.  Nor  want  nor  cold  his  course  delay. 

[Are  "want"  and  "  cold"  thought  of  separately  or  together?] 
*30.  Nor  yew  nor  cypress  spread  their  gloom. 

31.  Hoping  to  see  you  soon,  believe  me,  yours,  etc. 

[A  very  common  and  a  very  gross  error.     Supply  the  subject 
of  "believe."] 

32.  Repulsed  at  all  points,  the  retreat  began. 

33.  I  never  have  and  never  will  believe  it. 


85(c)  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 

34.  The  sons  of  false  Antimachus  were  slain  ; 

He  who  for  bribes  his  faithless  counsels  sold  (64-5). 
*35.  I  am  averse  from  him  going. 

[Macaulay and  Burke  both  wrote  "averse  from."  How  would 
you  justify  it?  What  real  error  does  this  sentence 
contain  ?] 

36.  Thersites'  body  is  as  good  as  Ajax,  when  neither  are  alive. 

[Comment  on  the  word  "Ajax."  Cf.  "as  thick  as  Ajax' 
sevenfold  shield."] 

37.  Nor  do  I  know  any  one  with  whom  I  can  converse  more  pleasantly 
or  would  prefer  as  my  companion. 

38.  Take  arms  against  a  sea  of  troubles  (185). 

39.  He  blew  his  brains  out  after  bidding  his  wife  good-bye  with  a 
gun. 

40.  Nobody  shall  save  me ;  I  will  be  drowned. 

41.  We  wish  to  most  heartily  congratulate  you. 

[No  good  writer  uses  the  split  infinitive,  and  all  who  aim  to 
write  well  should  avoid  it.] 

42.  Sarai  her  name  is  changed. 

[For  an  analogous  usage  see  p.  21.] 
*43.  How  happy  is  the  blameless  vestal's  lot, 

The  world  forgetting,  by  the  world  forgot. 
[Note  the  word  "  vestal's."] 
*44.  When  or  you  or  I  are  made, 

A  fable,  song,  or  fleeting  shade. 
[See  query  in  Ex.  29.] 
45.  The  French  press  know  little  of  the  actual  facts. 
*46.  The  name  and  personality  of  Gladstone  was  something  sacred. 
47.  Bazaine  with  all  hi^soldiers  were  captured  at  Metz. 
*48.  Let  us  go  to  Macmillan's,  the  publisher's. 

[Is  this  instance  to  be  pronounced  wrong  in  accordance  with 
Rule  vii.  67  ?  or  does  it  admit  of  explanation  as  it  stands? 
Assume  the  last  two  words  were  not  there.] 
*49.  All  of  us  went. 

[X.B.— "Six  of  us  went."] 
*50.  Honour,  justice,  religion  itself  is  dreaded  by  such  a  policy.     • 
[Note  the  emphasis  on  "religion  itself."] 
51.    Much  blood  and  treasure  was  wasted  in  this  war. 

[Consider  the  relation  of  "  much  "  to  "blood  and  treasure."] 
*52.  He  was  hanged — a  well-deserved  punishment. 

[Is  this  passage  susceptible  of  strict  analysis?] 

53.  His  career  was  cut  off  in  the  height  of  his  popularity,  having  been 
killed  in  a  duel. 

54.  These  were  the  men,  whom  he  thought  were  far  away. 

55.  The  point  was  not  the  hanging  of  the  culprit,  but  the  sparing 
him  (40). 


EXAMPLES  OF  FALSE,  DOUBTFUL,  AND  GENUINE  SYNTAX.  85(d) 

56.  Did  ever  man  put  God  to  the  proof  on  that  promise,  and  found  it 
broken  ? 

57.  Homer  was  not  only  the  maker  of  a  nation,  but  of  a  language 
and  of  a  religion  (185). 

*58.  You  can  keep  this  letter  and  show  it  to  whoever  you  like. 
[Cf.  Ex.  5.     How  does  this  example  differ  from  it  ?] 

59.  She  is  a  monument  of  what  a  human  being  in  infirm  health  is 
capable. 

[What  preposition  should  follow  "  capable"?] 

60.  These  circumstances  may   lead  to  your  ladyship  quitting  the 
house. 

61.  I  was  happy  to  hear  that  it  was  his  horse,  and  not  himself,  who 
fell  in  the  combat  (75). 

62.  Everybody  was  on  deck  amusing  themselves  as  they  could. 

63.  We  took  the  wrong  path,  and  certainly  the  steepest  I  had  ever 
climbed  before. 

[Had  he  climbed  the  path  in  question  before  ?] 

64.  I  was  never  so  long  in  company  with  a  girl  in  my  life — trying  to 
entertain  her — and  succeed  so  ill. 

65.  Sully  bought  one  of  the  finest  Spanish  horses  that  ever  was  seen. 

66.  It  is  not  fit  for  such  as  us  to  sit  with  the  rulers  of  the  land. 

67.  The  army,  whom  its  chief  had  abandoned,  pursued  their  miserable 
march. 

68.  He  is  a  boy  of  nine  years  old. 

[How  has  this  solecism  arisen  ?] 

69.  I  walk  like  Charles  and  not  like  you  do. 

*70.  Who  spills  the  foremost  foeman's  life, 

His  party  conquers  in  the  strife. 
[How  could  you  resolve  "  his  party  "  ?] 

71.  He  is  not  the  man  who  he  professes  to  be. 

72.  What  do  you  think  of  me  studying  Latin? 

[See  query  on  Ex.  8.  ] 

73.  His    is  a  style  strong,    vivacious,  clean-cut,  and  which  never 
transgresses  the  bounds  of  literary  propriety  (186,  9). 

74.  I  differ  with  you  entirely  (84). 

*75.  There  are  still  a  few  doubtful  points. 

[A  feW=some.] 
*76.   Who  are  you  calling  for  ?    Is  it  me  ? 

[Sentences  wrong    according  to  exact  syntax.      How  might 
"who  "and  "  me"  be  justified?] 
*77.  Whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ? 
*78.  The  boys  have  a  dozen  tennis  balls. 
79.   He  told  her  to  try  and  lay  down. 

[A  double,  and  a  common,  vulgarism.] 
*80.  Twice  one  is  two. 
*81.  Than  whom  no  one  is  kinder.     (Cf.  Ex.  20.) 


85(e)  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

*82.  This  day  have  I  begot  whom  I  declare  My  only  Son. 
*83.  I  am  verily  a  man  who  am  a  Jew. 

[In    strict   grammatic   justice    this    sentence   is   indefensible ; 
what,  however,  is  there  to  be  said  for  "am"  from  the  point 
of  view  of  grammatic  "  equity  "  ?] 
84.  Too  great  a  variety  of  studies  distract  the  mind. 
*85.  I  am  to  blame,  not  you. 
*86.  Whoever  the  King  favours 

The  Cardinal  will  find  employment  for. 
[How   would  the   "correct"  grammatical  construction  sound 
here  ?] 
87.  Neither  of  them  are  remarkable  for  foresight. 

*88.  It  must  be  confessed  that  a  lampoon  or  a  satire  do  not  carry  in 
them  robbery  or  murder. 

[Pit  sense  against  grammar  here,  and  note  the  word  "them."] 
89.  Whose  own  example  strengthens  all  his  laws, 

And  is  himself  the  great  sublime  he  draws. 
*90.  There  were  no  less  than  five  persons  concerned. 

[Parse  "less  "  by  itself,  or  "no  less  than  "  together.] 
*91.  Neither  he  nor  we  are  disengaged. 
92.  And  since  I  never  dare  to  write 

As  funny  as  I  can. 
*93.  Laying  the  suspicion  on  some  one,  I  know  not  who. 
*94.  Neither  he  nor  I  have  any  doubt  of  his  success. 

95.  I  am  one  of  those  who  cannot  describe  what  I  do  not  see. 

96.  Nobody  ever  put  so  much  of  themselves  into  their  work. 

97.  Such  are  a  few  of  the  many  paradoxes  one  would  cite  from  his 
writings,  and  which  are  now  before  me. 

98.  The  Daily  Howler  enjoys  the  largest  circulation  of  any  news- 
paper. 

99.  A  rise  in  rents  and  wages  always  seems  to  go  together. 

[How  many  "rises"  are  referred  to  here?] 

100.  The  view  was  maintained  by  one  of  the  greatest  writers  that 
has  appeared  in  this  country. 

*101.  The  administration  of  so  many  interests,   and  of  districts  so 
remote,  demand  no  common  capacity. 
[Contrast  Ex.  99.] 

102.  He  having  none  but  them,  they  having  none  but  he. 

[Constructions  are  not  parallel  here.     How  has  the  confusion 
arisen  ?] 

103.  Breaking  a  constitution  by  the  very  same  errors  that  so  many 
have  been  broke  before. 

104.  Thou  lovest,  but  ne'er  knew  love's  sad  satiety. 

105.  Luckily  the  monks  have  recently  given  away  a  couple  of  dogs 


EXAMPLES  OF  FALSE,  DOUBTFUL,  AND  GENUINE  SYNTAX.  85(f) 

which   were   returned  to  them,  or  the  breed   would   have  been  lost 
(187.12). 

106.  Having  perceived  the  weakness  of  his  poems,  they  now  reappear 
to  us  under  new  titles. 

107.  Whom  they  were  I  really  cannot  say. 

108.  He  was  shot  by  a  secretary  under  notice  to  quit,  with  whom  he 
was  finding  fault — very  fortunately  without  effect  (187). 

109.  It  is  characteristic  of  them  to  appear  but  to  one  person,  and  he 
the  most  likely  to  be  deluded  (64-5). 

110.  I  think  it  may  assist  the  reader  by  placing  them  before  him  in 
chronological  order. 

111.  Image  after  image,  phrase  after  phrase,  starts  out  vivid,  harsh, 
»nd  emphatic. 

[Contrast  Ex.  50.] 
*112.  Few  people  learn  anything  that  is  worth  learning  easily. 
[Depends  on  correct  reading.] 

113.  My  resolution  is  to  spare  no  expense  in  education ;  it  is  a  bad 
calculation,  because  it  is  the  only  advantage  over  which  circumstances 
"have  no  control  (184,  2  (i.)). 

114.  This  is  the  book  that  I  am  going  to  sit  down  and  read. 

115.  He  preferred  to  know  the  worst  than  to  dream  the  best. 

116.  The  Moor,  seizing  a  bolster,  full  of  rage  and  jealousy,  smothers 
her. 

117.  Books  that  we  can  at  a  glance  carry  off  what  is  in  them  are  worse 
than  useless  for  discipline. 

*118.  They  drowned  the  black  and  white  kittens. 

[How  many  colours  of  kittens  did  they  drown  ?] 

119.  The  Ministry  were  unanimously  in  favour  of  the  bilL 

120.  The  Ministry  was  divided  as  to  accepting  the  bill. 

121.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  is  one  of  those  who  never  interfere  with 
matters  over  which  he  has  no  control. 

*122.  The  people  is  one  ;  they  have  all  one  language. 

123.  Being  early  killed,  I  sent  a  party  in  search  of  his  mangled  body. 

124.  Thinking  of  them,  my  pen  tarries  as  I  write. 

125.  The  further  he  went,  the  colder  he  grew. 

*126.  After  the  most  straitest  sect  of  our  religion  I  lived  a  Pharisee. 

127.  The  field  of  turnips  was  absolutely  decimated  by  the  frost; 
scarce  a  root  was  left  untouched. 

[What  is  the  derivation  of  ' '  decimate  "  ?] 

128.  Our  mutual  friend.' 

[Cf.  "Common  enmities  are  said  to  cement  friendship." 
"What  in  this  case  would  be  the  result  of  substituting 
"mutual"  for  "common"?  Cf.  also  "  Probably  nothing 
draws  us  closer  to  each  other  than  mutual  ill-health." 
Look  up  the  meaning  of  "mutual.  "] 


85(g)  GRAMMAR   OF   THE    ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

129.  The  showers  came  on  continuously. 

[Cf.  "  The  adoption  of  continuous  brakes  upon  the  British  rail- 
ways is  becoming  general.  Let  us  hope  that  the  result 
may  be  by  means  of  the  continuous  brakes  to  avoid  the 
continual  smash." — Judy,  Oct.  1879.] 

130.  A  phenomena  common  to  a  number  of  diseases  (19). 

131.  The  climate  of  the  Riviera  is  perhaps  the  best  suited  to  invalids 
of  any  other  spot  in  France. 

*132.  The  prophets,  do  they  live  for  ever? 

133.  Mr.  A.  presents  his  compliments  to  Mr.  B.  I  have  got  a  hat 
which  is  not  his  ;  if  he  have  got  a  hat  which  is  not  yours,  no  doubt  they 
are  the  missing  one. 

[Apart  from  solecisms,  what  do  you  make  of  the  second  have  ?] 

134.  Mr.  Carlyle  has  taught  us  that  silence  is  golden  in  thirty 
volumes. 

135.  The  house,  now  that  it  is  furnished,  presents  a  cosy  appearance, 
and  it  really  is  so. 

136.  The  boy  replied  that  he  had  met  no  one,  or,  if  he  had,  that  they 
had  passed  him  unnoticed. 

137.  The  child  had  a  scratch  on  the  arm,  which  the  mother  could  not 
account  for,  and  took  a  long  time  to  heal. 

138.  Cheops  built  the  largest  pyramid  in  Egypt  which  bears  his  name. 

139.  We  are  both  agreed  that  the  sentence  is  wrong  (185). 

140.  It  follows  as  a  consequence  that  he  who  runs  may  read. 
*141.  Being  a  lawyer,  we  may  suppose  that  he  knows  some  law. 

142.  We  did  no  more  than  it  was  our  duty  to  have  done. 

[In  this  case  the  "doing"  should  belong  to  the  time  of  the 
duty.  ] 

143.  The  statement  may  be  to  some  extent  perfectly  true. 

144.  A  fondness  for  display  is  of  all  other  follies  the  most  ridiculous. 

145.  I  saw  the  man  whom  we  thought  was  dead. 

146.  We  met  Mr.  Smith,  who  we  thought  a  very  delightful  person. 

147.  Ask  the  murderer,  he  who  has  steeped  his  hands  in  the  blood  of 
another. 

148.  If  fresh  milk  docs  not  seem  to  agree  with  the  child,  boil  it. 

149.  Some  one  was  mentioned — I  forget  whom. 

150.  Scarcely  had  he  spoken  than  the  fairy  disappeared. 
*151.  She  is  prettier,  but  not  so  amiable  as  her  sister. 

152.  St.  Paul's  is  the  greatest  of  all  other  London  churches. 

153.  To  him  death  was  not  so  much  as  lifting  of  a  latch  (40). 
*154.  I  was  made  a  present  of  a  book. 

[Turn  sentence  into  active  voice.     See  pp.  78-9,  rule  xxxii.] 
*155.  Is  it  me  you  wish  to  see  ? 

[Cf.  c'est  moi,  est-ce  lux?  etc.] 
*156.   The  wages  of  sin  is  death  (78). 
157.  A  river  winds  between  the  old  and  new  plantation. 


EXAMPLES  OF  FALSE,  DOUBTFUL,  AND  GENUINE  SYNTAX.  85 (h) 

158.  I  hold  a  different  opinion  to  yours  (84). 

159.  The  lowest  strata  of  all  was  chalk. 

160.  The  river  has  overflown  its  banks. 

161.  Fresh  air  is  the  best  medicine,  which,  if  more  widely  known, 
men  would  be  the  better  of  it. 

162.  A  man  may  smoke  and  drink  till  lie  is  unable  to  live  without 
them. 

*163.  I  '11  go  back  there — no,  never. 

164.  They  should  try  and  improve  themselves,  so  that  they  might 
command  better  wages. 

165.  I  have  heard  that  story  no  less  than  a  dozen  times. 

166.  There  was  not  a  shadow  of  a  whisper  heard  (185,  3). 

167.  He  enjoys  the  universal  esteem  of  all  (181,  1). 

168.  His  father  was  opposed  to  him  entering  the  army. 

169.  Each  of  the  children  have  their  own  peculiar  traits. 

170.  Go  with  mean  people,  and  we  think  the  world  mean. 

171.  Eat  it  with  a  spoon  like  you  would  custard. 

172.  She  neither  moved,  spoke,  or  wept  during  all  those  sad  days. 

[See  the  meaning  of  the  suffix  ther,  28,  iv.] 

173.  No  sooner  had  James  ascended  the  throne,  but  he  began  .   .   . 

174.  The  life  husband  and  wife  lead  influence  the  children. 
*175.  Measles  is  not  commonly  a  dangerous  disease. 

176.  He  not  only  found  her  employed,  but  pleased  and  tranquil. 

177.  I  cannot  reconcile  your  statement  to  his  (84). 

*178.  It  was  the  necessity  which  made  me  a  quarrier,  that  taught  me 
to  be  a  geologist  (26,  15). 

179.  The    crisis    is   one    of    the    most    singular    which    have    ever 
occurred  (26). 

180.  The  old  gentleman  proposed  a  walk  to  Vauxhall,  a  place  of 
which,  he  said,  he  had  heard  much,  but  had  never  seen  it. 

181.  They  carry  as  tribute  to  Pekin  furs  and  gold-dust,  which  they 
collect  from  the  sands  of  their  rivers. 

182.  The  farmstead  was  always  the  white-painted  house,  of  which  the 
small  country  towns  are  composed. 

183.  Gordon,  whose  own  business  not  requiring  much  attention,  often 
left  his  more  immediate  concerns. 

*184.  He  dare  not  come  (39). 

*185.  This  picture  was  not  mine  but  my  brother's — an  artist  himself 
and  a  great  connoisseur. 

[Would  you  be  inclined  to  apply  the  strict  rules  of  apposition 
here  ?] 
*186.  Art  thou  not  it  that  hath  cut  Rahab  and  wounded  the  dragon? 
*187.  The  whole  of  the  orchard  was  ruined. 

[Why  "whole  o/"?] 
*188.   You  are  no  soldier. 

[How  would  you  parse  "no"  ?] 


85(i)  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

*189.  The  sight  of  his  blood,  whom  they  deemed  invulnerable,  shook 
the  courage  of  the  soldiers. 

190.  Amazed  at  the  alteration  in  his  manner,  every  sentence  that  he 
uttered  increased  her  embarrassment. 
*191.  Nor  heaven  nor  earth  have  been  at  peace  to-night. 
*192,  The  majority  of  the  inhabitants  are  ready  to  petition  against  his 
return. 
*193.  The  stork  assembly  meets, 

Consulting  deep  and  various  ere  they  take 
Their  arduous  voyage  thro'  the  liquid  sky. 

194.  Depend  upon  it,  he  would  not  like  to  have  his  charade  slighted 
much  better  than  his  passion. 

195.  Directly  Louis  xvi.  came  to  the  throne,  Vergennes  became  a 
Minister. 

*196.  And  was  not  this  the  Earl  ?    'Twas  none  but  he. 

[But  is  radically  and  originally  a  preposition  ;  it  came,  in  time, 
to  be  used  as  a  conjunction.] 

197.  The  French  Celt,  he  maintained,  would  never  become  a  colonist 
in  Algeria,  and  that  he  did  not  thrive  in  Corsica. 

[Is  "he  maintained"  parenthetical  or  no?] 

198.  I  had  a  sensation  as  though  I  had  been  walking  through  long 
dark  alleys  in  a  subterranean  coal-cellar,  and  that  I  now  through  an 
opening  saw  the  light  of  day. 

*199.  He  more  than  hesitated,  he  refused. 

[How  is  "more  than"  to  be  parsed?     Cf.  Byron's  "Go!  let 
thy  less  than  woman's  hand  assume  the  distaff."] 
*200.  Theirs  is  the  fault,  who  began  the  quarrel. 

201.  You  seldom  or  ever  see  a  hale  or  hearty  man  or  woman  vending 
watercresses. 

202.  The  cabin  was  superior  in  comfort  and  more  dignified  in  appear- 
ance to  the  generality  of  the  hovels. 

203.  I  so  greatly  prefer  hearing  you  than  speak  myself. 

204.  I  have  a  book  printed  at  Antwerp,  and  which  was  once  possessed 
by  Adam  Smith. 

[This  kind  of  error  is  sometimes  called  "  the  sin  of  which-craft."] 

205.  The  greatest  variety  of  forms,  with  the  least  meaning  in  them, 
were  its  excellences. 

*206.  Sacred  and  profane  wisdom  agree  in  declaring  that  "  pride  goeth 
before  a  fall. " 

207.  I  beg  you  to  carefully  execute  my  order. 

[A  gross  fault  of  style,  though  not  of  grammar.] 

208.  Remain  single  and  marry  nobody,  let  him  be  whom  he  may. 

209.  Every  man  of  the  boat's  crew  save  Amyas  were  down  with  a 
raging  fever. 

210.  No  one  should  marry  unless  they  have  the  certain  means  of 
supporting  their  children. 


EXAMPLES  OF  FALSE,  DOUBTFUL,  AND  GENUINE  SYNTAX  85 (k) 

211.  I  always  delight  in  overthrowing  those  kind  of  schemes  and 
cheating  a  person  of  their  premeditated  contempt. 

*212.  In  this  state  Frank  found  her,  she  trembling,  they  loud  and 
insolent. 
213.  He  gave  away  his  fortune  to  the  Lord  knows  who. 
*214.  Nobody  had  any  control  over  him  but  her. 

215.  If  there 's  any  one  embarrassed,  it  will  not  be  me  and  it  will  not 
be  she. 

216.  Erected  to  the  memory  of  John  Phillips,  accidentally  shot  as  a 
mark  of  affection  by  his  brother. 

217.  John  Keats,   the  second  of  four  children,  like  Chaucer  and 
Spenser,  was  a  Londoner. 

218.  I  am  neither  an  ascetic  in  theory  or  practice. 

[From  a  speech  of  an  ex- Vice-President  of  the  Committee  of 
Council  on  Education.] 

219.  I  never  remember  to  have  seen  so  ugly  a  face. 

["Never  remember  "  =  "  always  forget."] 

220.  His  last  journey  whence  he  was  never  destined  to  return. 

221.  Rats  and  gentlemen  catched  and  waited  on  and  all  other  jobs 
performed  by  Solomon  Gundy  (Advt.). 

*222.  His  two  eldest  sons  were  there. 

[Could  this  be  put  differently  ?    Cf.  Example  28.  ] 

223.  I  believe  that  when  he  died  the  Cardinal  spoke  at  least  fifty 
languages. 

224.  The  guilelessness  of  his  own  heart  led  him  to  suspect  none  in 
others. 

225.  The  death  is  announced  of  Sir  W A ,  a  Nova  Scotia 

baronet,  whose  creation  dates  from  1694. 

226.  Few  of  his  friends  except  myself  knew  of  him  being  there. 

227.  The  sad  faces  and  joyous  music  formed  an  incongruous  sight. 

228.  The  bullet  fortunately  indented  a  coin  in  his  pocket,  thus  saving 
his  life. 

229.  The  moon  rose  like  a  silver  shield,  raining  her  bright  arrows  on 
the  sea  (190,  4,  iii.). 

230.  A  duty  too  rigidly  insisted  on  will  make  it  odious. 

231.  The  trade  in  seal-skins  is  large,  but  I  saw  none  in  crossing ;  the 
steamers  have  frightened  them  away. 

232.  One  of  the  duellists  was  unhurt,  and  the  other  sustained  a  wound 
n  in  the  arm  of  no  importance. 

[Which  arm  was  this?] 


86 


THE  ANALYSIS  OF  SENTENCES. 

1.  Words  are  gregarious,  and  go  in  groups.  When  a  group 
of  words  makes  complete  sense,  it  is  called  a  sentence.  A 
sentence  is  not  a  chance  collection  of  words  j  it  is  a  true 
organism,  with  a  heart  and  limbs.  When  we  take  the  limbs 
apart  from  the  central  core  or  heart  of  the  sentence,  and  try  to 
show  their  relation  to  that  core,  and  to  each  other,  we  are  said 
to  analyse  the  sentence.  The  process  of  thus  taking  a  sen- 
tence to  pieces,  and  naming  and  accounting  for  each  piece,  is 
called  analysis. 

(i)  Analysis  is  a  Greek  word  which  means  breaking  up  or  taking 
apart :  its  opposite  is  Synthesis,  which  means  making  up  or  putting 
together. 

(ii)  When  we  examine  a  sentence,  and  divide  it  into  its  component 
parts,  we  are  said  to  analyse  the  sentence,  or  to  perform  an  act  of 
analysis.  But  when  we  put  words  or  phrases  together  to  make  a 
sentence,  we  perform  an  act  of  composition  or  of  synthesis. 

2.  A  sentence  is  a  statement  made  about  something,  as, 
The  horse  gallops. 

(i)  The  something  (horse)  is  called  the  Subject, 
(ii)  The  statement  (gallops)  is  called  the  Predicate. 

3.  Every  sentence  consists,  and  must  consist,  of  at  least  two 
parts.  These  two  parts  are  the  thing  we  speak  about  and 
what  we  say  about  that  thing. 

(i)  The  Subject  is  what  we  speak  about. 

(ii)  The  Predicate  is  what  we  say  about  the  subject. 

(i)  There  is  a  proverb  of  Solomon  which  says:  "All  things  are  double  one 
against  another."  So  there  are  the  two  necessarily  complementary  ideas  of  even 
and  odd;  of  right  and  left ;  of  north  and  south  ;  and  many  more.  In  language,  the 
two  ideas  of  Subject  and  Predicate  are  necessarily  coexistent ;  neither  can  exist 
without  the  other ;  we  cannot  even  think  the'  one  without  the  other.  They  are 
the  two  poles  of  thought. 


THE  ANALYSIS   OF  SENTENCES.  87 

(ii)  Sometimes  the  Subject  is  not  expressed  in  imperative  sentences,  as  in  "Go  !" 
=  "Goyou ! " 

(iii)  Except  in  a  contracted   compound  sentence,  the  Predicate  can  never  be 
suppressed  ;  it  must  always  be  expressed  ;  otherwise  nothing  at  all  would  be  said. 

4.  There  are   four   kinds  of   sentences :    Simple,    Complex, 
Compound,  and  Mixed. 

(i)  A  simple  sentence  contains  only  one  subject  and  one  predicate, 
(ii)  A  complex  sentence  contains  a  chief  sentence,  and  one  or 
more  sentences  that  are  of  subordinate  rank  to  the  chief  sentence. 

(iii)  A  compound  sentence  contains  two  or  more  simple  sentences 
of  equal  rank. 

(iv)  A  mixed   sentence   contains   two  or  more  chief  co-ordinate 
sentences,  and  one  or  more  subordinate  sentences. 

I.— THE  SIMPLE  SENTENCE. 

5.  A  Simple  Sentence  is  a  sentence  which  consists  of  one 
subject  and  one  predicate 

(i)  A  Simple  Sentence  contains,  and  can  contain,  only  one  finite 
verb.  If  we  say,  "Baby  likes  to  dance,"  there  are  two  verbs  in 
this  simple  sentence.  But  to  dance  is  not  a  finite  verb ;  it  is  an 
Infinitive ;  it  is  practically  a  pure  noun,  and  cannot  therefore  be  a 
predicate. 

(ii)  If  we  say,  "  John  and  James  ran  off,"  the  sentence  is  =  "John 
ran  off "+ "James  ran  off."  It  is  therefore  a  compound  sentence 
consisting  of  two  simple  sentences,  with  the  predicate  of  one  of  them 
suppressed.  Hence  it  is  called  a  contracted  compound  sentence- 
contracted  in  the  predicate. 

In  this  case  the  sentence  may  be  treated  as  Simple,  "  James 
and  John"  forming  a  Compound  Subject  to  the  Predicate 
"ran  off." 

FORMS  OF  SENTENCES. 

6.  Sentences  differ  in  the  Form  which  they  take.  As  re- 
gards form  they  may  be  classified  as  follows  : — 

(i)  Assertive — 

(a)  Positive  : — The  night  grows  cold. 

(b)  Negative  : — I  am  not  going. 

Not  a  drum  was  heard. 
They  caught  never  a  one. 


88  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(ii)  Interrogative  : — Whom  seek  ye  1 
(iii)  Exclamatory  : — How  swiftly  the  river  flows  ! 
In  the  cases  of  Interrogative  or  Exclamatory  sentences,  in 
which  the  usual  order  of  the  words  is  changed  for  the  sake  of 
emphasis  or  effect,  the  sentences  should  be  put  in  assertive 
straightforward  order  for  the  purpose  of  analysis,  thus  : — 

Ye  seek  whom  ? 

The  river  flows  how  swiftly. 

(iv)  Imperative  : — Sir,  look  to  your  manners. 
In  imperative  sentences  the  subject  is  usually  omitted.     In 
this  sentence  "  Sir "  is  really  a  nominative  of  address,  and  the 
real  subject  "  you  "  is  not  expressed. 

(v)  Optative,  expressing  a  wish  or  invocation  :  — 

"God  bless  us  every  one  !  " 
"  Oh,  could  I  flow  like  thee  !  " 

In  Greek  there  is  a  special  mood  of  the  verb,  called  the 
optative,  for  expressions  of  this  kind,  but  in  English  the  verb 
is  in  the  subjunctive. 

Note  how  the  Optative  differs  from  the  merely  Assertive.  Com- 
pare :— 

God  bless  us,  i.e.  May  God  bless  us  (Optative) ;  and 
God  blesses  us  (Assertive). 

PARTS  OF  THE  SENTENCE. 

7.  The  Subject  of  a  sentence  is  what  we  speak  about. 
What  we  speak  about  we  must  name. 

If  we  name  a  thing,  we  must  use  a  name  or  noun. 
Therefore  the  subject  must  always  be  either — 
(i)  A  noun ;   or 
(ii)   Some  word  or  words  equivalent  to  a  noun. 

8.  There  are  eight  kinds  of  Subjects — 

(i)  A  Noun,  as,  England  is  our  home, 
(ii)  A  Pronoun,  as,  It  is  our  fatherland. 


THE  ANALYSIS   OF  SENTENCES.  89 

(iii)  A  Verbal    Noun,   as,   The    reading  of   the  will 

proceeded, 
(iv)  A  Gerund,  as,  Catching  fish  is  a  pleasant  pastime, 
(v)  An  Infinitive,  as,  To  swim  is  quite  easy 
(vi)  An  Adjective,  with  a  noun  understood,  as,  The 

prosperous  are  sometimes  cold-hearted, 
(vii)  A  Quotation,  as,    "Ay,   ay,   sir!"  burst  from  a 

thousand  throats, 
(viii)  A  Noun-clause,   as,   That  he  was   a  tyrant  is 

generally  admitted. 

(a)  The  verbal  noun,  as  we  have  seen,  originally  ended  in  ting. 

See  page  40. 

(b)  Catching  is  a  gerund,  because  it  is  both  a  noun  (nomin- 

ative to  is)  and  a  verb,  governing  fish  in  the  objective. 

note  (i)  The  Subject  is  sometimes  composite — consisting  of  two  or 
more  words. 

The  home,  the  homeitead,  the  very  fences,  all  were  destroyed. 
To  seize  my  gun  and  (to)  fire  was  the  work  of  a  moment. 
To  them  his  heart,  his  love,  his  griefs,  were  given. 

(ii)  The  Subject  sometimes  stands  in  apposition  to  "it"  or 
"this."  Thus  in  the  sentence  : — "  It  is  my  resolve  to  succeed," 
the  effective  subject  is  "to  succeed." 

Similarly  in  the  sentence  :— "This  ruined  him,  his  inordinate  love  of  riches,"  the 
effective  subject  is  "  His  inordinate  love  of  riches."  Compare  also  : — "  That  was  their 
sole  reward,  the  approval  of  their  king. " 

In  these  cases,  "it,"  "this,"  and  "that"  are  simply  temporary  subjects,  the  real 
subject  coming  afterwards  out  of  its  natural  order.  "  It,"  or  any  word  thus  used, 
is  called  the  Provisional  Subject-. 

(iii)  Sometimes,  especiallj'  in  poetry,  an  unnecessary  or  redundant 
pronoun  is  put  in  with  the  Subject,  and  may  be  regarded  as  forming 
part  of  it. 

My  btllka,  they  are  furnished  with  bees. 

Tired  Nature's  sweet  restorer,  balmy  sleep, 
He,  like  the  world,  his  ready  visit  pays 
Where  fortune  smiles. 

9.  The  Predicate  in  a  sentence  is  what  we  say  about  the 
subject.  If  we  say  anything,  we  must  use  a  saying  or  telling 
word.     Now  a  telling  word  is  a  verb. 

Therefore    the    Predicate    must   always   be  a  verb,   or 
some  word  or  words  equivalent  to  a  verb. 


90  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

10.  There  are  six  kinds  of  Predicate — 

(i)  A  Verb,  as,  God  is.     The  stream  runs. 

(ii)  *'  To  be  "  +  a  noun,  as,  He  is  a  carpenter, 

(iii)  *'  To  be  "  +  an  adjective,  as,  They  are  idle, 

(iv)  "  To  be  *  +  an  adverb,  as,  The  books  are  there. 

(v)  "  To  be  "  +  a  phrase,  as,  She  is  in  good  health. 

(vi)  "  To  be  "  +  a  clause  or  sentence,  as,  His  cry  was, 
I  die  for  my  country. 

note  (i)  Only  Finite  or  Complete  Verbs  can  form  Predicates.     When 
the  Verb  is  incomplete  or  infinite,  as  in  the  case  of — 

(a)  A  Participle, 

(b)  An  Infinitive, 

it  cannot  form  the  Predicate  of  a  sentence  except  by  the  addition 
of  other  completing  words.  Thus  "loving"  or  "to  love"  could 
never  form  a  predicate,  although  "loving,"  when  converted  into  a 
finite  verb  by  prefixing  "was,"  may  form  a  predicate. 

(ii)  The  Verb  is  sometimes  modified  by  an  Adverb  or  Preposition 
which  is  closely  attached  to  it,  and  which  for  the  purpose  of  analysis 
may  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  Predicate. 

They  agreed  to  (= accepted)  my  proposal 
The  subject  was  well  thrashed  out  (  =  debated). 
The  pirates  stove  in  (= broke)  the  cabin-door. 

11.  Cautions : — 

(i)  There  is  a  large  class  of  verbs  known  as  Copulative 
Verbs,  which  being  connective  rather  than  notional 
in  their  character,  require  another  word  or  phrase 
to  be  associated  with  them  to  make  the  predicate 
complete.     Thus  : — ■ 

He  appears  healthy. 

The  apprentice  became  a  merchant 

The  girl  grew  tall. 

The  poor  creature  seems  to  he  dying. 

John  stands  six  feet. 

note. — Some  of  these  verbs  are  also  used  transitively,  and  then  take 
an  object  like  other  transitive  verbs  : — Stand  it  on  the  table. 

(ii)  The  frequently  occurring  verb  "  to  be "  (except  in 
tJie  few  cases  where  it  means  "to  exist"),  and  some 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  91 

other  copulative  verbs,  as,  to  seem,   to    become, 
etc.,  can  never  form  predicates  by  themselves. 

(iii)  Beware  of  associating  two  dissimilar  verbs  as  predi- 
cate. Thus  in  the  sentence  :  "  He  refused  to  leave 
the  ship,"  the  predicate  is  not  "refused  to  leave," 
but  simply  "  refused." 

12.  When  the  predicate  consists  of  an  active -transitive 
verb,  it  requires  an  object  after  it  to  make  complete  sense. 
This  object  is  called  either  the  object  or  the  completion.  As 
we  must  name  the  object,  it  is  plain  that  it  must  always,  like 
the  subject,  be  a  noun,  or  some  word  or  words  equivalent  to  a 
noun. 

13.  As  there  are  eight  kinds  of  Subjects,  so  there  are  eight 
kinds  of  Objects  or  Completions.     These  are  : — 

(i)  A  Noun,  as,  All  of  us  love  England, 
(ii)  A  Pronoun,  as,  We  saw  him  in  the  garden, 
(iii)  A  Verbal  Noun,  as,  Wc  dread  the  gathering  of 

the  clans, 
(iv)  A  Gerund,  as,  The  angler  prefers  taking  large  fish 
(v)  An  Infinitive,  as,  We  hate  to  be  idle. 
(vi)  An  Adjective  with  a  noun  understood,  as,  Good 

men  love  the  good. 
(vii)  A   Quotation,  as,  We  heard  his  last  "Good-bye, 

Tom ! " 
(viii)  A  Noun -clause  or   sentence,  as,  I   knew  what 
was  the  matter. 

note  (i)  The  words  it,  this,  and  that  may  form  Provisional  Objects, 
just  as  they  form  Provisional  Subjects  : — 

They  consider  it  infamous  to  desert. 
This  I  command,  no  parley  with  the  foe. 
That  he  abhors,  the  sale  of  flesh  and  blood. 

(ii)  The  Object,  like  the  Subject,  may  consist  of  an  unlimited 
number  of  these  parts  of  speech. 

At  noon  the  outlaw  reached  his  glen, 
His  gathered  spoils,  his  merry  men. 

At  twelve  the  poor  lad  began  to  learn  a  trade  and  (to)  help  his 
parents. 


92  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

14.  Verbs  of  giving,  promising,  offering,  handing,  and 
many  such,  take  also  an  indirect  object,  which  is  sometimes 
called  the  dative  object. 

There  are  several  kinds  of  Indirect  Objects  : — 

(i)  A  Noun,  We  gave  the  man  a  shilling. 

(ii)  A  Pronoun,  We  offered  him  sixpence. 

(iii)  An  Infinitive  : — 

after  the  Direct  Object :  I  saw  him  (to)  run. 

6^"  Some  authorities  prefer  to  regard  such  a  case  as  "  him  run" 
as  a  Compound  Object,  treating  as  a  whole  the  two  or  more  words 
forming  the  object. 

15.  The  following  may  be  regarded  as  special  kinds  of 
Objects : — 

(i)  A  Factitive  or  Complementary  Object : — 

They  made  him  President. 

Milton  did  not  hesitate  to  call  Spenser  a  better  teacher  than 
Socrates  or  Aquinas. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  words  "made"  and 
"call"  have  a  more  restricted  meaning  than 
when  followed  by  ordinary  simple  objects. 

Compare: — "They  made  him  President"  with  "They  made  a 
boat,"  "  Milton  .  .  .  Aquinas,"  with  "Call  them  quickly." 

In  the  latter  cases  "made"  and  "call"  have  a  fuller  meaning 
than  in  the  former. 

(ii)  A  Prepositional  Complementary  Phrase : — I  took 
him  for  a  sailor.  And  therefore  think  him  as  a 
serpent's  egg. 

note. — Sometimes    the    complementary  object    may    appear    as    an 
Adjective  with  a  Noun  understood. 

Exercise  made  him  strong  ( =a  strong  man). 
They  painted  the  house  white  ( =  a  white  house). 

(iii)  A  Cognate  Object,  in  which  the  Predicate  is  followed 
by  an  Object  akin  in  meaning  to  the  verb  itself  :— 

Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous. 
He  ran  his  godly  race. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  93 

(iv)  When  an  active  verb  with  two  objects  is  changed 
into  the  passive  form,  that  object  which  is  retained 
while  the  other  becomes  the  subject  is  termed  the 
Retained  Object : — 

A  shilling  was  given  the  man. 
The  door  was  denied  him. 

16.  Cautions : — 

(i)  Special  care  is  needed  in  dealing  with  the  Indirect 
Object  There  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  many 
young  students  to  put  down  any  word  or  phrase 
which  they  cannot  easily  classify  as  "Indirect 
Object."  Thus  words  or  phrases  which  are  Exten- 
sions of  the  Predicate  or  Enlargements  of  the 
Object  are  often  wrongly  classed  as  Indirect  Object. 

Compare :  —I  heard  him  read  (him  read  =  Compound  Object). 

I    heard    him    reading    (reading  =  Enlargement    of 

Object). 
I  sent  him  for  the  master  (for  the  master  =  Extension 
of  Pred.). 

(ii)  The  Indirect  object  must  be  carefully  distinguished 
from  the  Complementary  object  after  verbs  of  incom- 
plete predication.  One  test  is  that  it  is  often  possible 
to  make  sense  by  using  the  Indirect  Object  by  itself. 
Thus  we  can  say,  "  I  forgave  him  (I.  O.)  his  faults," 
or  simply  "  I  forgave  him."  But  in  the  sentence  "  the 
judge  set  him  free,"  if  you  omit  "  him  "  or  "  free,"  you 
produce  nonsense.  Verbs  of  incomplete  predication 
must  have  both  object  and  complementary  object  to 
make  sense.  Strictly  speaking,  this  complementary 
object,  as  it  cannot  be  used  by  itself,  is  not  a  true 
object. 

17.  The  Subject  or  the  Object  must  always  be  either  — 

(i)  A  Noun  :  or 

(ii)  Some  word  or  words  equivalent  to  a  noun. 
A  Noun  may  have  attached  to  it  any  number  of  adjectives 
or  adjectival  phrases.     An  adjective  or  adjectival  phrase  that 

H 


94  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

goes  with  a  subject  or  with  an  object  is  called,  in  Analysis,  an 
Enlargement. 

It  is  so  called  because  it  enlarges  our  knowledge  of  the  subject. 
Thus,  if  we  say,  "The  man  is  tired,"  we  have  no  knowledge  of 
what  kind  of  man  is  spoken  of  ;  but  if  we  say,  "The  poor  old  man 
is  tired,"  our  notion  of  the  man  is  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  the 
facts  that  he  is  both  poor  and  old. 

18.  There  are  seven  kinds  of  Enlargements  : — 

(i)  An  Adjective — one,  two,  or  more — That  big  old 

red  book  is  sold, 
(ii)  A  Noun  (or  nouns)  in  apposition,   William  the 

Conqueror  defeated  Harold, 
(iii)  A  Noun  (or  pronoun)  in  the  Possessive    Case, 

His  hat  flew  of£ 
(iv)  A  Prepositional  Phrase,  The  walk  in  the  fields 

was  pleasant. 

(v)  An  Adjectival  Phrase,  The  boy,  ignorant  of  his 

duty,  was  soon  dismissed, 
(vi)  A   Participle  (a),   or   Participial  Phrase   (b) — 

Sobbing    and    weeping,    she    was  led    from   the 

room  (a).     The  merchant,  having  made  a  fortune, 

gave  up  business  (b). 

(vii)  A  Gerundial  Infinitive — Anxiety  to  succeed  (  =  of 
succeeding)  wore  him  out.  Bread  to  eat  ( =  for 
eating)  could  not  be  had.  anywhere. 

19.  It  is  plain  that  all  these  seven  kinds  of  Enlargements 
may  go  with  the  Object  as  well  as  with  the  Subject. 

20.  An  Enlargement,  being  a  word  or  phrase  that  goes 
with  a  noun  or  its  equivalent,  must  always  be  an  adjective 
or  equivalent  to  an  adjective. 

note  (i)  An  Enlargement  may  itself  be  enlarged  by  the  same  parts 
of  speech  as  form  the  primary  enlargements. 

(a)  The  handle  of  this  sword  forged  by  Indians  is  richly  jewelled. 

(b)  The  Romans  crossed  a  stream  fed  by  a  glacier  of  the  Southern  Alps. 

The  phrases  "forged  by  Indians,"  and  "of  the  Southern  Alps," 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  95 

are  enlargements  of  "sword"  and    "glacier"   respectively,  which 
are  themselves  parts  of  qualifying  phrases. 

(ii)  A  Subject  or  Object  may  have  an  unlimited  number  of 
enlargements  of  various  kinds  :— 

The  poor  King,  an  outcast  from  his  own  domain,  suffering  the  pangs 
of  hunger  and  stung  by  bitter  reproaches,  ended  his  days  in  misery. 

Here  King  is  enlarged  by — 

(a)  An  Adjective. 

(b)  A  Noun  in  Apposition. 

(c)  Two  Participial  phrasea, 

21.  The  Predicate  is  always  a  Verb,  standing  alone  if 
complete,  or  accompanied  by  other  words  if  a  verb  of  in- 
complete predication. 

The  part  of  the  sentence  that  goes  with  the  verb  is  either  a 
simple  adverb,  a  compound  adverb,  or  a  phrase  adverbial 
in  its  character. 

22.  The  adverbs  or  adverbial  phrases  that  go  with  the  predi- 
date  are  called,  in  Analysis,  the  Extensions  of  the  Predicate. 

23.  There  are  seven  kinds  of  Extensions  : — 

(i)  An  Adverb,  as,  The  time  went  slowly. 

(ii)  An  Adverbial  Phrase,  as,  Mr  Smith  writes  no-w- 
and then. 

(iii)  A  Prepositional  Phrase,  as,  Mr  Smith  spoke  with 
great  effect. 

(iv)  A  Noun  Phrase,  as,  We  walked  side  by  side. 

(v)  A  Participial  Phrase,  as,  The  mighty  rocks  came 
bounding  down. 

(vi)  A  Gerundial  Phrase,  as,  He  did  it  to  insult  us 

(  =  for  insulting  us), 
(vii)  'An  Absolute  Infinitive  Phrase,  as,  To  tell  you 
the  truth,  I  think  him  very  stupid. 

MS"  Under  (v)  may  come  also  the  Absolute  Participial  Phrase,  such 
as,  "The  clock  having  struck,  we  had  to  go." 

24.  Extensions  of  the  prvJicate  are  classified  in  the  above 
section  from  the  point  of  view  of  grammar ;  but  they  are  also 
frequently  classified  from  the  point  of  view  of  distinction  in 
thought. 


96  GRAMMAR   OF   THE    ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

In  this  latter  way  Extensions  are  classified  as  extensions  of— 
(i)  Time,  as,  We  lived  there  three  years, 
(ii)  Place,  (a)  Whence,  as,  We  came  from  York. 

(b)  Where,  as,  He  lives  over  the  way. 

(c)  Whither,  as,  Go  home  ! 

(iii)  Manner  (a)  Manner  :  He  treads  firmly. 

(b)  Degree  :  She  writes  better. 

(c)  Accompanying  circumstances :    They  went  for- 

ward under  a  heavy  fire, 
(iv)  Agent :  James  was  represented  by  his  minister, 
(v)  Instrument :  They  ravaged  the  land  with  fire  and  sword, 
(vi)  Magnitude  (a)  Order  :  He  stood  first  in  his  class. 

(b)  Number  :  The  field  measured  ten  acres. 
(vii)  Mood  (a)  Affirmation  :  He  certainly  returned. 

(b)  Negation ;  The  enterprise  will  never  succeed. 

£2T  Never  is  here  a  more  emphatic  form  of  not, 
and  therefore  comes  under  the  head  of  Nega- 
tion rather  than  of  Time. 

(c)  Doubt :  Perhaps  you  will  meet  your  friend, 
(viii)  Cause  :  The  clerk  was  dismissed  for  idleness. 

(ix)  Purpose  :  They  went  abroad  to  better  their  condition, 
(x)  Condition  :  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing, 
(xi)  Concession  :  With  all  thy  faults,  I  love  thee  still. 
Here  the  sense  is  obviously  "  Notwithstanding  all  thy  faults,"  etc. 

25. 

note  (i)  Just  as  a  Subject  or  Object  may  have  an  unlimited  number 
of  Enlargements,  so  a  Predicate  may  have  any  number  of  Exten- 
sions. 

For  three  years  the  widow  dwelt  quietly  in  the  lonely  cottage.  Here  we  have  three 
extensions  of  time,  manner,  and  place  respectively.  Care  should  be  taken  to  keep 
the  various  extensions  quite  distinct  in  analysing ;  the  student  should  letter  or 
number  them  (a),  (b),  (c),  etc.,  or  (1),  (2),  (3),  etc.,  and  state  after  each  its  kind. 

(ii)  Where  two  or  more  extensions  of  the  same  class  appear  they 
should  be  kept  distinct.  At  nightfall,  during  a  heavy  snowstorm, 
they  wandered  forth. 

Here  the  two  extensions  of  time  should  be  taken  separately. 

26.   Cautions : — 

(i)  The    same  word  may  be  used  as  Object  or  as  an 
Extension  of  the  Predicate. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  97 

Compare  :— I  care  nothing  for  your  threats.    (Extension  of  Degree. ) 
He  gave  me  nothing.     (Object.) 

11  Nothing  "  in  the  first  sentence  simply  shows  to  what  extent 
you  are  affected  by  the  threats  ;  M  nothing"  in  the  second  sentence 
is  obviously  the  Direct  Object  of  "gave,"  expressing  what  he  gave. 

Compare: — What  did  you  see?     (Object.) 

What  recks  he  of  his  daily  duty  ?    ( Extension — Degree. ) 

"  What"  in  the  first  sentence  is  evidently  the  Direct  Object  of  the 
interrogation  "  did  see  "  ;  in  the  second  sentence  "  what "  expresses 
the  extent  to  which  he  is  affected  by  considerations  of  his  daily 
duty. 

Compare  with  the  latter  the  sentence  : — "What  with  war  and 
what  with  famine,  the  nation  was  almost  exterminated."  Where 
the  two  "whats"  are  evidently  adverbial  in  their  nature,  and  the 
phrases  they  introduce  are  extensions  of  the  predicate. 

(ii)  The  same  phrase  may  be  an  Enlargement  (of  the 
Subject  or  Object)  or  an  Extension  of  the  Predi- 
cate. 

Compare  : — Exercise  In  the  open  air  is  healthy.  (Enlargement  of 
Subject.) 

He  takes  his  exercise  in  the  open  air.     (Extension — Place.) 

In  the  first  sentence  the  phrase  ' '  in  the  open  air  "  qualifies  or 
limits  the  word  '*  exercise,"  indicating  a  particular  form  of  exercise ; 
in  the  second  sentence  "  in  the  open  air  "  indicates  the  place  where 
he  takes  his  exercise,  and  hence  it  is  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate. 

NOMINATIVE  OP  ADDRESS. 

27.  The  Nominative  of  Address  may  relate  to — 

(a)  The  Subject :  Milton !  thou  shouldst  be  living  at  this 

hour. 

(b)  The  Object :  I  welcome  you,  good  Masters. 

(c)  An   Extension :    We    shall    pull   towards   you,   Sir 

Knight. 

Or  it  may  be  detached,  The  castle  keep,  my  Lord,  I  hold. 

The  Nominative  of  Address  is  interjectional  in  its  nature, 

and  just  as  the  Interjection  is  a  part  of  speech  standing  apart 

from  the  family  formed  by  the  others,  so  a  Nominative  of 


98  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Address  really  forms  no  part  of  the  logical  sentence.  Regarded 
as  somewhat  appositional,  it  may  be  placed  with  that  part  of 
the  sentence  to  which  it  specially  belongs,  or  the  rule  may  be 
adopted  of  placing  it  in  the  same  column  as  the  Subject,  care 
being  taken  to  indicate  that  it  forms  no  part  of  the  logical 
subject. 

28.  The  following  cautions  are  of  importance  : — 

(i)  The  Noun  in  an  absolute  clause  cannot  be  the 
Subject  of  a  simple  sentence.  "We  can  say,  "  The 
train  having  started,  we  returned  to  the  hotel." 
Here  we  is  the  subject. 

The  phrase  "the  train  having  started"  is  an  adverbial  phrase 
modifying  returned,  and  giving  the  reason  for  the  returning. 

(ii)  A  subject  may  be  compound,  and  may  contain  an 
object,  as,  "  To  save  money  is  always  useful."  Here 
the  subject  is  to  save  money,  and  contains  the 
object  money — the  object  of  the  verb  "to  save." 

An  object  may  also  contain  another  object,  which  is  not  the 
object  of  the  sentence.  Thus  we  can  say,  "  I  like  to  save  money," 
when  the  direct  object  of  like  is  to  save,  and  money  is  a  part  only 
of  that  direct  object. 

(iii)  An  Absolute  Participial  Phrase  (or  Nominative 
Absolute)  is  always  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate, 
and  may  express — 

(a)  Time  :  The  clock  having  struck  one,  we  proceeded. 

(b)  Cause  :  Darkness  coming  on,  the  wanderers  quick- 

ened their  pace. 

(c)  Circumstances :  I  crossed  the  moor,  the  snow  falling 

heavily. 

(iv)  Not  usually  forms  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate, 
but  it  may  also  form — 

(a)  Part  of  the  Subject :  Not  a  drum  was  heard.    (Nega- 

tive Enlargement. ) 

(b)  Part  of  the  Object :  We  carved  not  a  line.    (Negative 

Enlargement. ) 
They  heard  never  a  sound.   (Negative  Enlargement. ) 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  9d 

t3"  As  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate,  not  is  usually  independent  of 
other  extensions,  as, 

They  moved      not  (Negative  Extension) 

(  during  the  storm      (Extension  of  Time) 
but  sometimes  it  simply  negatives  another  Extension,  and  must  not 
be  dissociated  from  it ;  as,  Not  in  vain  he  wore  his  sandal-shoon. 

(v)  There  is  generally — 

(a)  An  Extension  of  Place  :  There  they  rested. 
But  it  is  sometime? — 

(b)  An  Indefinite  Extension  (a  mere  Expletive). 
There  were  twenty  present. 

The  shadowy  and  vague  character  of  there  is  shown  by  the 
paraphrase  "  Twenty  were  present,"  and  also  by  the  fact  that  in 
translating  the  sentence  into  many  languages  no  equivalent  would 
be  put  for  "there." 

(vi)  Distinguish  between  various  uses  of  the  Infinitive. 

(a)  Subject :  To  quarrel  is  not  my  wish. 

(b)  Part  of  the  Predicate  :  He  might  (to)  win  the  shield. 

t3T  Those  who  regard  might  as  being  always  a 
Principal  Verb  would  put  win  as  part  of  the 
Object. 

(c)  Object :  They  love  to  wander. 

(d)  Extension  of  the  Predicate  :  She  came  to  learn. 

In  this  case  "  to  learn  "  is  not  an  ordinary  infinitive,  but  a  ger- 
undial  infinitive  or  infinitive  of  purpose,  and  is  equivalent  to  "  for 
learning. "     See  p.  40. 

(vii)  Care    must  be  taken  to  distinguish   between  the 

same  word  when  used  as — 

(a)  An  Adjective,   forming    part    of    the    Predicate    with    an 
Intransitive  Copulative  Verb — 

The  king  looks  well, 
This  apple  tastes  sweet, 

or  (b)  An  Adverb,  forming  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate  after  a 
Verb— 

The  king  eats  well. 

How  tweet  the  moonlight  sleeps  npon  this  bank. 

Students  must  be  very  careful  to  discriminate  between  these 
cases.  Where  the  word  indicates  quality,  it  is  adjectival  in  nature, 
and  will  form  part  of  the  Predicate  ;  where  it  indicates  manner,  it  is 
adverbial  in  nature,  and  forms  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate. 


100  GRAMMAR   Of  THE    ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(viii)  In  the  case  of  qualifying  or  limiting  phrases 
(especially  participial  phrases),  it  is  sometimes  diffi- 
cult to  determine  whether  they  are  simple  Enlarge- 
ments of  the  Subject  or  Extensions  of  the  Predi- 
cate. 

Returning  then  the  bolt  he  drew. 

A  widow  bird  sat  mourning  for  her  love. 

In  the  first  sentence  "returning"  is  an  enlargement  of  "he"  ;  in 
the  second  sentence  mourning  does  not  enlarge  "  bird,"  but  shows 
how  it  sat.     It  sat  mourning,  i.e.  sadly,  sorrowfully. 

The  safest  plan  in  cases  of  this  kind  is  to  determine  what  principal 
part  of  the  sentence  the  qualifying  or  limiting  word  or  phrase  is 
most  closely  connected  with.  If  it  is  essentially  qualifying  in  nature, 
it  is  probably  an  Enlargement  of  the  Subject  or  Object ;  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  expresses  some  modification  of,  or  condition  in  respect 
to,  the  Predicate,  it  is  an  Extension  of  the  Predicate. 


THE  MAPPING-OUT  OF  SIMPLE  SENTENCES. 

29.  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  get  the  eye  to  help  the 
mind,  and  to  present  to  the  sight  if  possible — either  on  paper 
or  on  the  black-board — the  sentence  we  have  to  consider.  This 
is  called  mapping-out. 

Let  us  take  two  simple  sentences  : — 

(i)  "  From  the  mountain-path  came  a  joyous  sound  of  some  person 

whistling. " 
(ii)  "In  the  Acadian  land,  on  the  shores  of  the  Basin  of  Minas, 

Distant,  secluded,  still,  the  little  village  of  Grand-Pre 

Lay  in  the  fruitful  valley. " 

30.  These  may  be  mapped  out,  before  analysing  them,  in  the 
following  way : — 

joyous 
(i)  A  SOUND  CAME 

I 
some  person  whistling  the  mountain  path. 

(ii)  distant,  secluded,  still 

little 


THE  ANALYSIS  £>&  ESSENCES/*  ""'•  '*"      101 
The  VILLAGE  LAY 

the  fruitful  valley. 
Grand-Pre*         the  Acadian  land  the  shores  of  the  Basin,  etc. 

31.  Such  a  mapping-out  enables  us  easily  to  see,  with  the 
bodily  as  well  as  with  the  mind's  eye,  what  is  the  main  purpose 
of  all  analysis — to  find  out  which  words  go  with  which,  and 
what  is  the  real  build  of  the  sentence.  Hence,  unless  we  see 
at  a  glance  the  build  of  the  sentence  we  are  going  to  analyse, 
we  ought,  before  doing  so,  to  set  to  work  and  map  it  out. 

FORMS  OF   ANALYSIS. 

32.  The  sentences  may  then  be  analysed  in  either— 

(a)  the  Detailed  form, 
or  (b)  the  Tabular  form. 

(a)  The  Detailed  form  is  analogous  to  that  adopted  for  parsing, 
and  gives  us  scope  for  subdividing  the  sentence  to  an  unlimited 
extent,  and  giving  the  maximum  amount  of  detail. 

(b)  The  Tabular  form  does  not  provide  for  so  much  detail,  but  it 
has  the  advantage  of  great  clearness,  and,  as  it  greatly  facilitates 
the  examination  of  an  exercise,  it  is  the  form  usually  preferred  by 
public  examiners. 

33.  Detailed  Analysis. 


(i)  a.  A  sound 

Subject. 

6.  joyous 

Adjectival  Enlargement  of  Subject. 

c.   of  some  person 

whistling 

Prepositional  Phrase,  Enlargement 
of  Subject. 

d.  came 

Predicate. 

e.    from  the  path 

Extension  of  Predicate.  Place 
whence. 

/.    mountain 

Adjectival  Enlargement  of  c. 

(ii)  o.  The  village 

Subject. 

b.  little 

Adjectival  Enlargement  of  Subject 

c.  distant    a 

d.  secluded  L 

Complementary  part  of  the  Predicate. 

e.  still         J 

V    S.VIV 


/.  ofGrand-Pre 

Prepositional  Thrase,  Enlargement 

of  Subject. 

S^-lay 

Predicate. 

h.  in  the  land 

Extension     of    Predicate.        Place 

where. 

i.    Acadian 

Adjectival  Enlargement  of  h. 

j.    on  the  shores 

Extension     of    Predicate.        Place 

where. 

k.   of  the  basin 

Prepositional  phrase,  enlarging  /. 

£.    of  Minas 

>>                 »>              >»         «•• 

m.  in  the  valley 

Extension    of    Predicate.        Place 

where. 

n.  fruitful 

Adjectival  Enlargement  of  m. 

34. 

Tabular  Analysis. 

Enlarge- 

Enlarge- 

Extension 

Subject. 

ment  of 

Predicate. 

Object. 

ment  of 

of 

Subject. 

Object. 

Predicate. 

A  sound 

(a)  joyous 

(b)  of  some 
person 

whistling 

came 

from  the 
mountain 
path  {place 
whence) 

The  village 

(a)  little 

lay 

(a)  in  the 

(b)of 

(distant, 

Acadian 

Grand-Pro" 

secluded, 
still) 

land 

{place 

where) 

(b)  on  the 
shores  of 
the  Basin 
of  Minas 
{place 
where) 

(c)  in  the 
fruitful 
valley 
{ptace 
where) 

II.— THE  COMPLEX  SENTENCE. 

35.  A  Complex  Sentence  is  a  statement  which  contains  one 
Principal  Sentence,  and  one  or  more  sentences  dependent  upon 
it,  which  are  called  Subordinate  Sentences.     There  are  three 


THE  ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.-  103 

kinds — and  there  can   only  be   three  kinds — of  subordinate 
sentences — Adjectival,  Noun,  and  Adverbial. 
A  subordinate  sentence  is  sometimes  called  a  clause. 

36.  A  Subordinate    Sentence   that  goes  with  a  Noun  or 

Pronoun,  fulfils  the  function  of  an  Adjective,  is  equal  to  an 

Adjective,  and  is  therefore  called  an  Adjectival  Sentence. 

"Darkness,  which  might  be  felt,  fell  upon  the  city. "  Here  the 
sub-sentence,  "  which-might-be-felt,"  goes  with  the  noun  darkness, 
belongs  to  it,  and  cannot  be  separated  from  it ;  and  this  sentence  is 
therefore  an  adjectival  sentence. 

37.  A  Subordinate  Sentence  that  goes  with  a  Verb  fulfils 
the  function  of  an  Adverb,  is  equal  to  an  Adverb,  and  is 
therefore  called  an  Adverbial  Sentence. 

"  I  will  go  whenever  you  are  ready."  Here  the  sub-sentence, 
"whenever  you  are  ready,"  is  attached  to  the  verb  go,  belongs  to 
it,  and  cannot  be  separated  from  it ;  and  hence  this  sentence  is  an 
adverbial  sentence. 

38.  A  Subordinate  Sentence  that  forms  the  Subject  of  a 

Predicate,  or  the  Object,  or  that  is  in  apposition  with  a  noun, 

fulfils  the  function  of  a  Noun,  and  is  therefore  called  a  Noun 

Sentence. 

"  He  told  me  that  his  cousin  had  gone  to  sea."  Here  the  sub- 
sentence,  "  his  cousin  had  gone  to  sea,"  is  the  object  of  the  transi- 
tive verb  told.  It  fulfils  the  function  of  a  noun,  and  is  therefore  a 
noun  sentence. 

39.  An  Adjectival  Sentence  may  be  attached  to — 

(i)  The  Subject  of  the  Principal  Sentence  ;  or  to 
(ii)  The  Object  of  the  Principal  Sentence  ;   or  to 
(iii)  Any  Noun  or  Pronoun, 
(i)  The  book  that-I-bought  is  on  the  table  :  to  the  subject, 
(ii)  I  laid  the  book-I-bought  on  the  table  :  to  the  object; 
(iii)  The  child  fell  into  the  stream  that-runs-past  the  mill :  to  the 
noun  stream — a  noun  in  an  adverbial  phrase. 

40.  note. — (i)  As  may  in  certain  cases  be  regarded  as  a  relative 

introducing  an  Adjectival  Sentence.     In  such  cases 

it  is  usually  a  correlative  of  such  or  same. 

I  never  saw  such  fish  as  he  caught  in  the  Avon, 
x  This  is  the  same  bag  as  you  gave  me  last  year. 


104  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(ii)  But  in  certain  cases  may  be  taken  as  a  negative  rela- 
tive introducing  an  Adjectival  Sentence. 

(a)  There  is  no  man  here  but  loves  you. 
This=  " There  is  no  man  here  "who  does  not  love  you." 

(b)  "  No  land  but  listens  to  the  common  call." 
"But "  is  equivalent  to  "  which  does  not." 

41.  An  Adverbial  Sentence  may  be  attached  to — 

(i)  A  Verb ; 

(ii)  An  Adjective ;  or  to 

(iii)  An  Adverb. 

(i)  To  a  Verb.  It  does  not  matter  in  what  position  the  verb  is. 
It  may  be  (a)  the  Predicate,  as  in  the  sentence,  "I  walk  when  I 
can."  It  may  be  (b)  an  Infinitive  forming  a  subject,  as,  "  To  get  up 
when  one  is  tired  is  not  pleasant. "  It  may  be  (c)  a  participle,  as  in 
the  sentence,  "Having  dined  before  he  came,  I  started  at  once." 

(ii)  To  an  Adjective.  "His  grief  was  such  that  all  pitied  him. " 
Here  the  sub-sentence  "  that  all  pitied  him  "  modifies  the  adjective 
such. 

(iii)  To  an  Adverb.  "  He  was  so  weak  that  he  could  not  stand." 
Here  the  sub-sentence  "that  he  could  not  stand"  modifies  the 
adverb  so,  which  itself  modifies  the  adjective  weak. 

42.  Just  as  there  are  many  classes  of  Adverbs,  so  there  are 
many  different  kinds  of  Adverbial  Sentences. 

(i)  Time.     I  will  go,  when  you  return, 
(ii)  Place.     Where  the  bee  sucks,  there  suck  I. 
(iii)  Manner.    He  strode,  as  though  he  were  in  pain, 
(iv)  Degree.     I  spoke  as  loudly  as  I  could  (speak), 
(v)  Proportion.       The    sooner   you  complete  your 

task  the  sooner  you  can  leave, 
(vi)  Condition.     If  you  stand  by  me,  I  will  oppose 

him. 
(vii)  Concession — Provided  this  is  done,  I  will  consent, 
(viii)  Cause.     Avoid  him,  because  he  is  dishonest, 
(ix)  Effect   or   Consequence.     He  worked  so  hard, 

that  he  was  certain  to  do  well, 
(x)  Purpose.     He  worked  very  hard,  for  he  wished 
to  do  well. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES  105 

Cautions : — 

(i)  In  nearly  every  case  the  word  introducing  the  ad- 
verbial sentence,  as  when,  where,  if,  etc.,  helps 
us  to  recognise  it,  but  occasionally  there  is  no 
introductory  word,  and  we  must  judge  by  the 
sense  alone. 

In  the  sentence — 

11  Pass  that  line,  and  I  fire  upon  you," 
it  is  evident  that  the  first  clause  is   Adverbial,  and  that  the  real 
meaning  would  be  accurately  expressed  by  the  form  ' '  If  you  pass 
that  line,"  etc. 

(") 

"  Ye  meaner  fowl,  give  place, 
I  am  all  splendour,  dignity,  and  grace." 
Here  the  second  sentence   is  Adverbial  to   the  first,   and  sense 
demands  "for,"  "because,"  or  "since,"  as  a  connecting  word. 

(in)  Avoid  the  mistake  of  calling  a  sentence  Adverbial 
simply  because  it  begins  with  an  adverb. 
"First  (he)  loves  to  do,  then  loves  the  good  he  does." 
The  second  sentence  is  not  adverbial,  but  co-ordinate  with   the 
first. 

43.  Adjectival  and  Adverbial  Sentences  are  easily  recognised 
from  the  fact  that  they  have  no  complete  meaning  in  them- 
selves apart  from  the  Principal  Sentence  to  which  they  are 
attached.  Of  some  Principal  Sentences — as,  e.g.,  those  begin- 
ning with  who,  which,  etc. — the  same  thing  may  be  said,  but 
in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  a  Principal  Sentence  is  independent 
in  sense  and  self-contained  in  meaning. 

Take  two  of  the  sentences  given  above. 

1 '  Which  might  be  felt. "     (Adjectival. ) 
' '  When  I  can. "  (Adverbial. ) 

Their  incompleteness  is  at  once  perceived.  Their  function  is 
to  qualify,  extend,  modify,  or  limit  the  master  sentence  to 
which  they  are  attached ;  they  are  distinctly  subordinative. 

The  subordinate  character  of  Noun-sentences  is  best  per- 
ceived when  they  are  introduced  by  their  ordinary  connective 
"that";  in  other  cases  their  true  nature  maybe  recognised 
from  their  relationship  to  the  principal  sentence. 


106  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

44.  A  Noun  Sentence  may  be — 

(i)  The  Subject  of  the  Principal  Sentence ;  or 
(ii)   The  Object  of  the  main  verb ;  or 
(iii)  The  Nominative  after  is ;  or 
(iv)  In  Apposition  with  another  Noun. 

(i)  "  That-he-is-better  cannot  be  denied":  the  subject.  Here 
the  true  nominative  is  that.  "  That  cannot  be  denied."  What? 
"  That  =  he  is  better."  (From  usage  that  in  such  sentences  acquires 
the  function  and  force  of  a  conjunction. ) 

(ii)  "I  heard  that-he-was-better  :  "  the  object. 

(iii)  "My  motive  in  going  was  that-I-might-be-of-use  "  :  nomina- 
tive after  was. 

(iv)  "The  fact  that-he-voted-against-his-party  is  well  known": 
in  apposition  with  fact. 

Impersonal  Construction — 

And  methought,  while  she  liberty  sang, 

'Twas  liberty  only  to  hear. 
" 'Twas-liberty-only-to-hear  "  is  a  Noun  sentence,   subject  to  the 
impersonal  verb  "  methought,"  and  forming   with  it   a  principal 
sentence. 

45.  Any  number  of  Subordinate  Sentences  may  be  attached 
to  the  Principal  Sentence.  The  only  limit  is  that  dictated  by 
a  regard  to  clearness,  to  the  balance  of  clauses,  or  to  good  taste. 

The  best  example  of  a  very  long  sentence,  which  consists  entirely 
of  one  principal  sentence  and  a  very  large  number  of  adjective 
sentences,  is  "The  House  that  Jack  built."  "This  is  the  house 
that- Jack-built. "  '  •  This  is  the  malt  that-lay-in-the-house-that- Jack- 
built,"  and  so  on. 

Co-ordinate  Subordinate  Sentences.  Two  or  more  subor- 
dinate sentences  of  the  same  kind  may  be  attached  to  the 
same  principal  sentence. 

Type  of  the  wise,  who  soar  but  (who)  never  roam. 
If  the  day  be  fine  and  (if)  I  am  free,  I  will  go  over  the  common. 
John  knew  that  the  farmer  had  cut  his  corn  and  (that  he  had) 
stacked  it. 

In  the  first  sentence  we  have  two  Adjectival  sentences,  subordin- 
ate to  the  principal  and  co-ordinate  with  one  another.  In  the  other 
sentences  we  have  Adverbial  and  Noun-sentences  of  a  corresponding 
character.  The  words  in  brackets  are  understood  and  should  be 
shown  in  your  analysis. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  107 

46.  Principal  and  Subordinate.  The  same  sentence  may 
be  subordinate  to  a  principal  sentence,  and  at  the  same  time 
principal  to  another  sentence. 

The  man  who  hesitates  when  danger  is  at  hand,  is  lost. 
The    sentence    "who  hesitates"   is  adjectival  to   the  principal 
sentence,  and  principal  to  "when  danger  is  at  hand." 

The  sentence  would  not  be  properly  analysed  unless  its  twofold 
character  and  relationship  were  fully  shown. 

Compare  : — Tell  her  that  wastes  her  time  and  me, 
That  now  she  knows, 
When  I  resemble  her  to  thee, 
How  sweet  and  fair  she  seems  to  be. 

47.  Connectives : — 

(i)  Care  must  be  taken  to  associate  introductory  and 

connective  words  with  their  proper  sentences ; 

otherwise  confusion  will  result  and  the  nature 

of  the  sentences  may  be  misunderstood. 

Yet  he  who  reigns  within  himself,  and  rules 
Passions,  desires,  and  fears,  is  more  a  king. 

The  Principal  sentence  here  is  "  Yet  he  is  more  a  king." 

Thus,  while  I  ape  the  measure  wild 
Of  tales  that  charmed  me  as  a  child, 
Rude  though  they  be,  still  with  the  chime 
Return  the  thoughts  of  early  time. 

"Thus  "  in  the  first  line  introduces  the  principal  sentence  "  Still 
.  .  .  time." 

Note  the  inversion  in  "Rude  though  they  be,"  and  remember 
that  Inversions  are  very  common  in  poetry. 

CAUTIONS    IN    THE    ANALYSIS    OF    COMPLEX 
SENTENCES. 

48.  (i)  Find  out,  first  of  all,  the  Principal  Sentence. 

(ii)  Secondly,  if  the  sentence  is  complicated  or  of 
more  than  average  difficulty,  look  out  the  finite 
verbs ;  these  are  the  kernels  of  the  various  sen- 
tences ;  remember  that  each  finite  verb  means 
a  sentence.  When  you  are  sure  of  your  verbs 
you  will  be  able  to  connect  with  each  its  sub- 
iect,  object,  and  extensiona 


108  GRAMMAlt   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(iii)  Thirdly,  look  for  the  sentences,  if  any,  that  attach 
themselves  to  the  Subject  of  the  Principal  Sen- 
tence. 

(iv)  Fourthly,  find  those  sentences,  if  any,  that  belong 
to  the  Object  of  the  Principal  Sentence,  or  to 
any  other  Noun  or  Pronoun  in  it. 

(v)  Fifthly,  look  for  the  subordinate  sentences  that 
are  attached  to  the  Predicate  of  the  Principal 
Sentence. 

When  a  subordinate  sentence  is  long,  quote  only  the  first  and  last 
words,  and  place  dots  ....  between  them. 

49.   The  following  Cautions  are  necessary  : — 

(i)  A  connective  may  be  omitted. 

In  Shakespeare's  "  Measure  for  Measure,"  Isabella  says — 

"I  have  a  brother  is  condemned  to  die." 

Here  who  is  omitted,  and  "  who  .  .  .  die  "  is  an  adjectival  sen» 
tence  qualifying  the  object  brother. 

(ii)  Do  not  be  guided  by  the  part  of  speech  that  in 

troduces  a  subordinate  sentence.     Thus  : — 

(a)  A  pronoun  (interrogative)  may  introduce  a  noun  sentence,  as, 
M I  do  not  know  who-he-is  "  ;  or  a  pronoun  (relative)  may  introduce  an 
adjectival  sentence,  as,  "John,  who-was-a-soldier,  is  now  a  gardener." 

(b)  An  adverb  may  introduce  a  noun  sentence,  as,  "I  don't 
know  where  it  has  gone  to;"  or  an  adjectival  sentence,  as,  "The 
spot  where  he  lies  is  unknown."  In  the  sentence,  "The  reason  why 
so  few  marriages  are  happy  is  because  young  ladies  spend  their  time 
in  making  nets,  not  in  making  cages  " — the  subordinate  sentence 
"  why  .  .  .  happy"  is — though  introduced  by  an  adverb — in  appo- 
sition to  the  noun  reason,  and  is  therefore  a  noun  sentence. 

(Hi)  It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  decide  whether  a  given 

sentence  is  Adjectival  or  Noun. 

Whoever  first  reaches  the  fort  gains  the  prize. 
I  will  reward  whoever  first  reaches  the  fort. 

In  these  sentences  some  would  prefer  to  regard  the  subordinate 
sentence  as  qualifying  "he"  or  "him,"  and  would  class  them  as 
adjectival,  but,  inasmuch  as  they  stand  in  the  one  case  for  subject 
and  in  the  other  for  object,  it  is  preferable  to  take  them  as  noun 

sentences. 

We  speak  that  we  do  know. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES. 


109 


ITere,  instead  of  taking  "that  we  do  know  "  as  a  noun  sentence,  it 
is  better  to  split  up  "  tha  t  "  (a  composite  relative)  into  *  that  which  " 
and  take  "which  we  do  know  "  as  an  Adjectival  sentence. 

THE  MAPPING-OUT  OF  COMPLEX  SENTENCES. 
50.  Complex  Sentences  should  be  mapped  out  on  the  same 
principles  as  Simple  Sentences.     Let  us  take  a  sentence  from 
Mr  Morris's  "  Jason  "  : — 

* '  And  in  his  hand  he  bare  a  mighty  bow, 
No  man  could  bend  of  those  that  battle  now." 
This  sentence  may  be  drawn  up  after  the  following  plan  :•— 
his  hand 

a  mighty 


He. 


•2I 

bare 


bow 


no  man  could  bend 


those 


battle  now. 

(The  single  line  indicates  a  preposition ;  the  double  line  a  con 
junction  or  conjunctive  pronoun. ) 

51.  The  larger  number  of  subordinate  sentences  there  are, 
and  the  farther  away  they  stand  from  the  principal  sentence, 
the  larger  will  be  the  space  that  the  mapping-out  will  cover. 
Let  us  take  this  sentence  from  an  old  Greek  writer : — 

"Thou  art  about,  0  king!  to  make  war  against  men  who  weai 
leathern  trousers,  and  have  all  their  other  garments  of  leather ;  who 
feed  not  on  what  they  like,  but  on  what  they  can  get  from  a  soil 
that  is  sterile  and  unkindly ;  who  do  not  indulge  in  wine,  but  drink 
water ;  who  possess  no  figs,  nor  anything  else  that  is  good  to  eat. " 
This  would  be  set  out  in  the  following  way : — 
Thou  art  about  .  .  .  against  men 

(i)  wear  .  .   .  trousers 
(ii)  have  .  .  .  leather 
(iii)  feed  not  on  that 

1 

I* 

(a)  they  like 
I 


110 


GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


(iv)  feed  on  that 


(b)  they  can  get  from  a  soil 


(b1)  is  sterile  and  unkindly 
(v)  do  not  .   .  .  wine 
(vi)  drink  water 
(vii)  possess  no  figs 
(viii)  possess  not  anything  else 

•M 
c3 
,3 

■*» 

(c)  is  good  to  eat. 

52.  Sentences  may  also  be  pigeon-holed,  or  placed  in  niarked- 
off  spaces  or  columns,  like  the  following : — 

"Thro'  the  black  Tartar  tents  he  passed,  which  stood 
Clustering  like  bee-hives  on  the  low  black  strand 
Of  Oxus,  where  the  summer  floods  o'erflow 
When  the  sun  melts  the  snow  in  high  Pamir." 


Sentences. 


A.  He  passed 
through  the 
black  Tartar 
tents 

(a)  which  clus- 


tering     like 

(a)  Adj. 

bee    -  hives 

sen- 

stood on  the 

tence 

strand        of 

to  A. 

Oxus, 

(b)Adj. 

(b)  [intheplace] 

sent. 

which      the 

to 

floods    o'er- 

place 

flow 

under- 

(c)  when 
melts 


Kind  of 

Sentence. 


A.  Prin. 

sentence. 


stood 

(c)  Adv. 
sent, 
to  o'er- 
flow 


Subject. 


He 


which 


floods 


thei 


Enlarge- 


cluster- 
ing 


the  sum- 
mer 


Predi- 
cate. 


stood 


o'erflow 


melts 


Exten- 
sion. 


thro' the 
tents 


on    the 
low 
black 
strand 


when  in 
high 
Pamir 


Object. 


(which) 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  Ill 

$3.  There  is  a  kind  of  Continuous  Analysis,  which  may 
often — not  without  henefit — be  applied  to  longer  passages,  and 
especially  to  passages  taken  from  the  poets.     For  example : — 

"  Alas  !  the  meanest  herb  that  scents  the  gale, 
The  lowliest  flower  that  blossoms  in  the  va?e 
Even  where  it  dies,  at  spring's  sweet  call  renews 
To  second  life  its  odours  and  its  hues." 

1.  Alas  !  an  interjection,  with  no  syntactical  relation  to  any  word 

in  the  sentence. 

2.  the  meanest,  attributive  or  enlargement  to  3. 

3.  herb,  Subject  to  4. 

4.  renews,  Predicate  to  3. 

5.  odours  and  hues,  Object  to  4. 

6.  at  .  .  .  call,  Extension  of  renews,  to  4. 

7.  to  .  .  .  life,  Extension  of  renews,  to  4. 

8.  the  lowliest,  attributive  or  enlargement  to  9. 

9.  flower,  Subject  to  10. 
10.  renews,  Predicate  to  9. 

$•!  11.  odours  and  hues,  Object  to  10. 

12.  at  .  .  .  call,  Extension  to  10. 

13.  to  .  .  .  life,  Extension  to  10. 


(-14. 

C    15. 

1 16. 

ri7.  th 

IM  18.  bl 
U9.  in 


that,  Subject  to  15  and  connective  to  3. 
scents,  Predicate  to  14. 
gale,  Object  to  15. 

tnat,  Subject  to  18  and  connective  to  9. 
blossoms,  Predicate  to  17. 
the  vale,  Extension  to  18. 


{20.  even,  Adverb  modifying  21. 
21.  where  it  dies,  Extension  to  18. 
22.  it,  Subject  of  23. 
23.  dies,  Predicate  of  22. 

Ill— THE  COMPOUND  SENTENCE. 

54.  A  Compound  Sentence  is  one  which  consists  of  two 
or  more  Simple  Sentences  packed,  for  convenience'  sake,  into 
one. 

Thus,  in  the  "  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  Sir  Walter  Scott  writes : — 

M  The  way  was  long,  the  wind  was  cold, 
The  minstrel  was  infirm  and  old." 

He  might  have  put  a  full  stop  at  long  and  at  cold,  for  the  sense  ends 


112  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

in  these  places,  and,  grammatically,  the  two  lines  form  three 
separate  and  distinct  sentences.  But  because  in  thought  the  three 
are  connected,  the  poet  made  one  compound  sentence  out  of  the  three 
simple  sentences. 

55.  A  Compound  Sentence  may  be  contracted. 

(i)  If  we  say,  "John  jumped  up  and  ran  off,  the  sentence  is=s 
"John  jumped  up  "+ "John  ran  off."  It  is  therefore  a  compound 
sentence  consisting  of  two  simple  sentences,  but,  for  convenience 
sake,  contracted  in  the  subject. 

It  may  be  taken  as  a  Compound  Contracted  Sentence,  and  should 
be  analysed  as  two  connected  sentences. 

Compare  : — And  out  again  I  curve  and  flow 
To  join  the  brimming  river, 
(ii)  In  the  sentence,   "  Either  a  knave  or  a  fool  has  done  this," 
the  sentence  is  contracted  in  the  predicate  for  the  purpose  of  avoid- 
ing the  repetition  of  the  verb  has  done. 

(iii)  In  "The  troops  caught,  and  the  King  executed  the  rebels," 
the  sentence  is  contracted  in  the  object,   "the  rebels"  being  the 
object  of  both  sentences. 
(iv)  Sometimes  both  Subject  and  Predicate  are  omitted,  as — 
"  Who  grewest  not  alone  in  power 
And  knowledge ;  but  from  hour  to  hour 
In  reverence  and  in  charity. " 
Here  "who  grewest  "  must  be  inserted  after  "  but." 

(v)  Some  sentences  require  modification  or  addition  before  they 
can  be  satisfactorily  analysed. 

1  ■  No  land  but  listens  to  the  common  call, 
And  in  return  receives  supply  from  all." 
This  may  be  rendered 

There  is  no  land  |  which  listens  not  to  the  common  call,  J 
And  which  in  return  receives  not  supply  from  all. " 
Alterations,  however,  should  never  be  made  unless  they  are  un- 
avoidable. 

CO-ORDINATE  SENTENCES. 

56.  The  Principal  Co-ordinate  Sentences  of  a  Compound 
Sentence  are  connected  in  various  ways  by  different  classes  of 
Conjunctions.  The  relationship  of  a  sentence  to  a  co-ordinate 
one  preceding  it  is  either — 

(a)  Copulative  or  continuative. 

(b)  Disjunctive. 

(c)  Adversative. 

(d)  Illative. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  113 

57.  A  Copulative  Sentence  is  so  connected  with  a  preceding 
one  that  the  idea  expressed  by  it  agrees  with  or  simply  carries 
further  the  thought  going  before. 

Each  change  of  many-coloured  life  he  drew, 
Exhausted  worlds,  and  then  imagined  new. 
The  connectives  of  copulative  sentences  are  :  And,  also,  likewise, 

moreover,  further,  furthermore ;  and  correlatives  such  as  :  both — 

and  ;  not  merely — but,  etc. 

note  (i)  The  sense  of  the  sentences  and  their  relationship  to  one 
another  must  be  the  chief  guide  in  deciding  the  nature  of  the  con- 
nection. In  many  cases  the  connecting  word  in  itself  is  mis- 
leading. 

We  met  a  man  at  the  gate,  who  told  us  the  way. 
Here  the  function  of  the  sentence  "who  told,"  etc.,  is  not  to 
qualify  the  preceding  sentence,  but  to  express  an  additional  fact, 
which  is  co-ordinate  with  the  preceding.      Who  =  and  he,  and  is 
really  copulative. 

(ii)  He  was  not  at  home,  which  was  a  great  pity. 
"Which"   does  not  introduce  a  subordinate   qualifying  sentence, 
but  is  really  copulative,  introducing  a  co-ordinate  sentence.     It  is 
equivalent  to  "  and  this." 

(iii)  Nor  and  neither,  when  they  are  equivalent  to  "  are  not,"  are 
copulative. 

The  enemy  will  not  fight,  nor  will  they  even  prepare  for  battle. 
They  refused  to  pay,  neither  did  they  offer  to  explain. 

(iv)  While  and  whilst  are  sometimes  only  copulative — 

"  The  greater  number  laid  their  foreheads  in  the  dust,  whilst  a 
profound  silence  prevailed  over  ail." 

The  second  sentence  is  noway  subordinate  to  the  first ;  it  is  not 
used  to  adverbially  modify  the  first  in  regard  to  time,  but  to 
introduce  a  sentence  of  equal  rank,  the  two  sentences  being 
co-ordinate. 

(v)  Sometimes  the  connective  is  entirely  omitted,  but  the  logical 
connection  of  the  sentences  shows  that  the  second  is  co-ordinate  with, 
and  stands  in  copulative  connection  with,  the  first. 
Her  court  was  pure  ;  her  life  serene  j 
God  gave  her  peace  ;  her  land  reposed. 

58.  A  Disjunctive  Sentence  is  a  sentence  which  implies 
exclusion,  or  presents  an  alternative  to  the  one  before  it. 

Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be. 

The  breath  of  heaven  must  swell"  the  sail, 

Or  all  the  toil  is  lost. 


114  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

The  connectives  of  disjunctive  sentences  are  :  Either,  or  :  neither 
nor;  and  sometimes  "else"  and  "otherwise." 

59.  An  Adversative  Sentence  is  one  which  expresses  an 
idea  in  opposition  to  or  in  contrast  with  that  of  a  pre- 
ceding one. 

To  them  his  heart,  his  love,  his  griefs  were  given  ; 
But  all  his  serious  thoughts  had  rest  in  heaven. 

The  connectives  of  adversative  sentences  are  :  But,  however,  never- 
theless, notwithstanding,  only,  still,  yet ;  and  such  correlatives  as : 
on  the  one  hand — on  the  other  hand,  now — then. 

note. — Sometimes  the  connective  is  not  expressed  : 

They  resent  your  honesty  for  an  instant ;  they  will  thank  you  for 
it  always. 

60.  An  Illative  Sentence  expresses  a  reason  or  inference  in 
reference  to  one  before  it.     Illative  sentences  may  be — 

(a)  Illative  Proper  :  when  the  idea  expressed  is  a  natural  inference 

from  or  implied  consequence  of  what  is  previously  expressed. 

The  leaves  are  falling  ;  therefore  the  swallows  will  soon  be  gone. 

(b)  Causative  :   when  the  idea  expressed  forms  the  grounds  of  a 

certain  inference  expressed  in  the  preceding  sentence. 

The  swallows  will  soon  be  gone  ;  for  the  leaves  are  falling. 
The  connectives  are  (a)  Illative  Proper  :  Therefore,  hence,  so,  con- 
sequently, etc. 
(b)  Causative  :  For. 

Caution.  —  Great  care  is  necessary  in  distinguishing  be- 
tween an  Illative  Sentence  and  an  Adverbial  Sentence  of 
Consequence. 

Thus  in  the  sentence,  The  leaves  are  falling  ;  therefore  the  swallows 
will  soon  be  gone,  the  second  sentence  is  a  fair  inference  from,  but  not 
a  necessary  consequence  of,  the  first,  and  is  an  Illative  Sentence. 

"Whereas  in  the  sentence,  The  leaves  are  falling ;  therefore  the  trees 
will  soon  be  bare,  the  second  sentence  is  a  necessary  consequence  of 
the  first,  and  is  an  Adverbial  Sentence  of  Effect  or  Consequence. 

The  student  may  draw  for  himself  a  corresponding  distinction  be- 
tween 

The  swallows  will  soon  be  gone  ;  for  the  leaves  are  falling, 

and 
The  trees  will  soon  be  bare  :  for  the  leaves  are  falling. 


THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES.  115 

61.  Note. — (i)  In  some  cases  an  introductory  "  for "  is 
simply  a  preposition,  and  the  sentence  is  neither  Illative 
nor  Adverbial. 

For  pathless  marsh  and  mountain  cell 
The  peasant  left  his  lonely  shed. 

(ii)  The  connection  in  the  following  is  exceptional : — 

And  out  again  I  curve  and  flow 

To  join  the  brimming  river  ; 
For  men  may  come,  and  men  may  go, 

But  I  go  on  for  ever. 

"  For  men  may  come  "  is  neither  an  Illative  nor  an  Adverbial 
Sentence,  but  a  co-ordinate  sentence,  copulative  to  the  preceding 
ones. 

In  Illative  Sentences  the  connective  is  very  rarely  omitted,  but 
examples  are  not  unknown. 

Milton  !  thou  shouldst  be  living  at  this  hour  : 
England  hath  need  of  thee  ;  she  is  a  fen 
Of  stagnant  waters. 

The  second  and  third  sentences  are  in  illative  relationship  to  the 
first ;  they  give  the  grounds  of  the  first  statement,  and  might  fitly 
begin  with  for. 

PARENTHETICAL   SENTENCES. 

62.  Sometimes  sentences  are  interposed  in  a  way  that  com- 
plicates the  analysis. 

These  are  the  very  people  who  you  thought  were  lost. 

Here  ' '  who  were  lost "  is  really  a  noun  sentence  to  its  principal 
"you  thought";  but  it  is  an  adjectival  sentence  to  the  real  prin- 
cipal "  These  are  the  very  people. "  ' '  You  thought "  is  therefore  best 
taken  as  a  parenthetical  sentence,  having  a  principal  relationship  to 
n  who  were  lost." 

In  other  cases  the  relationship  of  the  interposed  sentence  to  the 
rest  of  the  sentence  is  less  clear. 

Then  I  stood  up — and  I  was  scarcely  conscious  of  my  surroundings 
— and  fired  my  gun. 

The  interposed  sentence  may  be  regarded  as  principal  and  co- 
ordinate with  the  other  two,  but  on  account  of  its  loose  relationship 
it  is  better  taken  as  simply  "  parenthetical." 


116 


WORD-BUILDING   AND    DERIVATION. 

1.  The  primary  element — that  which  is  the  shortest  form — 
of  a  word  is  called  its  root.  Thus  tal  (which  means  number)  is 
the  root  of  the  words  tale  and  tell  and  till  (a  box  for  money). 

2.  The  stem  is  the  root  +  some  modification.  Thus  love 
( =  lov  +  e)  is  the  stem  of  the  root  lov. 

3.  It  is  to  the  stem  that  all  inflexions  are  added,  and  thus  to 
love  we  add  d  for  the  past  tense. 

4.  If  to  the  root  we  add  a  suffix,  then  the  word  so  formed  is 
called  a  derivative.  Thus  by  adding  ling  to  dar  (  =  dear), 
we  make  darling. 

5.  In  general,  we  add  English  prefixes  and  English  suffixes 
to  English  words ;  but  this  is  not  always  the  case.  Thus  we 
have  cottage,  where  the  Latin  ending  age  is  added  to  the  Eng- 
lish word  cot;  and  covetousness,  where  the  English  ending 
ness  is  added  to  the  Latin  word  covetous.  Such  words  are 
called  hybrids. 

6.  When  two  words  are  put  together  to  make  one,  the  one 
word  so  made  is  called  a  compound. 

7.  The  adding  of  prefixes  or  of  suffixes  to  words,  or  the 
making  one  word  out  of  two,  is  called  word-formation. 

COMPOUND    NOUNS. 

8.  Compound  Nouns  are  formed  by  the  addition  of  : — 
(i)  Noun  and  Noun,  as — 

Bandog  (=  bond-dog).  Brimstone  (= burn-stone). 

Bridal  (  =  bride-ale).  Bylaw  (  =  law  for  a  by  or  town). 


COMPOUND   ADJECTIVES. 


117 


Daisy  (  =  day's  eye). 

Evensong. 

Garlic  (=  gar-leek  =  spear-leek  ; 

O.E.  gdr,  spear). 
Gospel  (  =  God's  spell  =  story). 
Housetop. 

Huzzy  (  =  housewife). 
Icicle  (  =  is-gicel  =  ice-jag). 

(ii)  Noun  and  Adjective,  as — 

Blackbird.  Midnight. 

Freeman.  Midsummer. 


Lapwing  ( =  leap-wing). 
Nightingale  ( =  night-singer). 
Orchard  ( =  ort-yard  =  wort-yard,  i.e., 

herb-garden).' 
Railway. 
Tadpole  (  =  toad-head.     Pole  =  poll,  a 

head,  as  in  poll-tax). 
Wednesday  (  =  Woden's  day). 


Quicksilver. 

Twilight  (  =  two  lights). 


t&  Blackfbird  has  the  accent  on  black,  and  is  one  word.    A  blackfbird  need  not  be  a 
black'  bird'. 


(iii)  Noun  and  Verb,  as- 
Bakehouse. 
Cutpurse. 
Godsend. 


Grindstone. 
Pickpocket. 
Screech-owl 


(iv)  Noun  and  Adverb,  as  offshoot. 

(v)  Noun  and  Preposition,  as  afterthought. 

(vi)  Verb  and  Adverb,  as — 

Castaway.  Drawback. 


Welfare. 


Farewell. 


Spendthrift. 

Wagtail. 

Washtub. 


Outlook. 
Welcome. 


COMPOUND  ADJECTIVES. 

9.  There  are  in  the  language  a  great  many  compound  adjec- 
tives, such  as  heart-whole,  sea-sick,  etc.;  and  these  are  formed 
in  a  large  number  of  different  ways. 

Compound  adjectives  may  be  formed  in  the  following  ways  : — 

(i)  Noun  +  Adjective,  as  purse-proud,   wind-swift,  way-weary,  sea- 
green,  lily-white. 

(ii)  Noun  +  Present  Participle,  as  ear-piercing,  death-boding,  heart- 
rending, spirit-stirring,  sea-faring,  night-walking,  home-keeping. 

(iii)  Noun  +  Passive  Participle,  as  moth-eaten,  worm-eaten,  tempest- 
tossed,  way-laid,  forest-born,  copper-fastened,  moss-clad,  sea-girt. 

(iv)  Adverb  +  Present   Participle,  as  far-darting,   everlasting,   high- 
Btepping,  well-meaning,  long-suffering,  far-reaching,  hard-working. 

(v)  Adverb  +  Passive  Participle,  as  high-born,  low-pitched,  well-bred, 
thorough-bred,  high-strung,  ill-pleased. 


118  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

(vi)  Noun  +  Noun  +  ed,  as  hare-brained,  dog-hearted,  beetle- headed, 
periwig-pated,  club-footed,  lily-livered,  trumpet-tongued,  eagle-eyed. 

(vii)  Adjective  +  Noun  +  ed,  as  evil-eyed,  grey-headed,  thin-faced, 
empty-headed,  tender-hearted,  thick-lipped,  two-legged,  three-cornered, 
four-sided,  high-minded,  bald-pated. 

(viii)  Noun  +  Noun,  as  lion-heart,  iron-side. 

(ix)  Adverb  +  Noun  +  ed,  as  down-hearted,  under-handed. 

COMPOUND   VERBS. 

10.  There  are  not  many  compound  verbs  in  the  English 
language.     The  few  that  there  are  are  formed  thus : — 

(i)  Verb  and  Noun,  as  — 

Backbite.  Hamstring.  Hoodwink. 

Browbeat.  Henpeck.  Kiln -dry. 

(ii)  Verb  and  Adjective,  as— 

Dumfound.  Fulfil  (  =  nll  full).  Whitewash, 

(iii)  Verb  and  Adverb,  as — 
Doff  ( =  do  off).  Dout  ( =  do  out).  Cross-question. 

Don  (  =  do  on).  Dup  (  =  do  up).  Outdo. 

THE    FORMATION    OF   ADVERBS. 

11.  Adverbs  are  derived  from  Nouns,  from  Adjectives,  from 
Pronouns,  and  from  Prepositions. 

a.  Adverbs  derived  from  Nouns  are  either :  (i)  Old.  Posses- 
sives,  or  (ii)  Old  Datives,  or  (iii)  Compounds  of  a  Noun  and 
a  Preposition  : — 

(i)  Old  Possessives  :  Needs  =  of  need,  or  of  necessity.    The  Calendrer 

says  to  John  Gilpin  about  his  hat  and  wig — 

"  My  head  is  twice  as  big  as  yours, 
They  therefore  needs  must  fit." 

Of  the  same  class  are  :  always,  nowadays,  betimes. 

(ii)  Old  Datives.  These  are  seldom  and  the  old-fashioned  whilom 
(  =  in  old  times). 

(iii)  Compounds:  anon  =  (in  one  moment),  abed  (  =  on  bed)  asleep, 
aloft,  abroad,  indeed,  of  a  truth,  by  turns,  perchance,  perhaps. 

b.  Adverbs  derived  from  Adjectives  are  either :  (i)  Old 
Possessives,  or  (ii)  Old  Datives,  or  (iii)  Compounds  of  an 
Adjective  and  a  Preposition  : — 

(i)  Old  Possessives:  else  (ell-es,  possessive  of  cd  =  other),  unawares, 
once  (  =  ones),  twice,  thrice,  etc. 


PKEFIXES. 


119 


(ii)  Old  Datives.  The  old  English  way  of  forming  an  adverb  was 
simply  to  use  the  dative  case  of  the  adjective — which  ended  in  e.  Thus 
we  had  deep€,  brighte,  for  deeply  and  brightly.  Then  the  e  dropped 
away.  Hence  it  is  that  there  are  in  English  several  adverbs  exactly 
like  adjectives.  These  are :  fast,  hard,  right  (in  "  Right  Reverend  "), 
far,  ill,  late,  early,  loud,  high. 

(iii)  Compounds  of  an  Adjective  and  a  Preposition :  on  high,  in 
vain,  in  short,  at  large,  of  late,  etc. 

c.  Adverbs  derived  from  Pronouns  come  from  the  pronominal 
stems  :  who,  the  (or  this),  and  he.  The  following  is  a  table, 
and  it  is  important  to  note  the  beautiful  correspondences : — 


Pronominal 

Stems. 

Place 
In. 

Place 
To. 

Place 
From. 

Time 
In. 

Manner. 

Cause. 

Who 

Where 

Whither 

Whence 

Whe-n 

Ho-W 

Wh-y 

Th-e  or  th-ia 

The-re 

Thi-ther 

The-nce 

The-n 

Th-us 

Th-e 

He 

He-re 

Hi-ther 

Hence 

(i)  How  and  why  are  two  forms  of  the  same  word — the  instrumental 
case  of  who.     How = in  what  way  ?     Why  =  with  what  reason  ? 

(ii)  The,  in  the  last  column,  is  the  adverbial  the  (A.S.  thy)  before  a 
comparative.  It  is  the  instrumental  or  ablative  case  of  that  or  thaet. 
"  The  more,  the  merrier  "  =by  that  more,  by  that  merrier.  That  is,  the 
measure  of  the  increase  in  the  number  is  the  measure  of  the  increase  in 
the  merriment. 

(iii)  Thus  is  the  instrumental  case  of  this,  and  is  =  in  this  manner. 

d.  Compound  Adverbs  are  formed  by  adding  together — 
(i)  Noun  and  Noun,  as  lengthways,  endways, 
(ii)  Noun  and  Adjective,  as  — 

Always.  Head-foremost.  Otherwise. 

Breast-high.  Meanwhile.  Sometimes, 

(iii)  Preposition  and  Noun,  as  Aboveboard,  outside, 
(iv)  Adverb  and  Preposition,  as — 

Hereafter.  Therein.  Whereupon. 


PREFIXES  AND    SUFFIXES. 

12.  The  Prefixes  used  in  our  language  are  of  English,  French, 
Latin,  and  Greek  origin. 

(i)  French  is   only  a  modified   Latin.     Hence   French   prefixes   fall 
naturally  under  Latin  prefixes,  as  the  one  is  only  a  form  of  the  other. 


120  GRAMMAR   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

13.  English  Prefixes  are  divided  into  Inseparable  and 
Separable.  Inseparable  Prefixes  are  those  that  have  no  mean- 
ing by  themselves  and  cannot  be  used  apart  from  another  word. 
Separable  Prefixes  may  be  used  and  are  used  as  independent 
words. 

14.  The  following  are  the  most  important 

English  Inseparable  Prefixes  : — 

1.  A  (a  broken-down  form  of  O.E.  an  =  on),  as — 
Abed.  Aloft  ( =  in  the  lift  or  sky).       A-building. 

Aboard.       Away.  Athwart  (  =  on  the  cross). 

2.  Be  (an  O.E.  form  of  by),  which  has  several  functions  : — 

(i)  To  add  an  intensive  force  to  transitive  verbs,  as — 

Bedaub.  Beseech  Besmear. 

Besprinkle.  (  =  beseek).  Besmirch. 

(ii)  To  turn  intransitive  verbs  into  transitive,  as — 

Bemoan.  Bespeak.  Belie 

(iii)  To  make  verbs  out  of  nouns  or  adjectives,  as — 

Befriend.  Beguile.  Benumb.  Betroth. 

Besiege  (  =  to  take  a  siege  or  seat  beside  a  town  till  it  surrenders). 

(iv)  To  combine  with  nouns,  as — 

Behalf.  Bequest.  Bypath. 

Behest.  Byname.  Byword. 

(v)  To  form  part  of  prepositions  and  adverbs,  as  before,  besides,  etc. 

3.  For  (O.E.  for  =  Lat.  per)   means   thoroughly,   and   has   two   func- 
tions : — 

(i)  To  add  an  intensive  meaning,  as  in — 

Forbear.  Forget.  Forswear. 

Fordone  (  =  ruined).       Forgive.  Forlorn  (  =  utterly  lost). 

jJ2T  Forswear  means  to  swear  out  and  out,  to  swear  to  anything,  hence  falsely. 
Compare  the  Latin  perjurare  ;  hence  our  perjure. 

(ii)  To  give  a  negative  meaning,  as  in  forgo  (wrongly  spelled  forego), 
to  go  without. 

4.  Fore = before  ;  as  forebode,  forecast.     (Fore  is  also  used  separately.) 

5.  Gain    (O.E.    gaegn,    back,    again),    found    in    gainsay    (to   speak 
against) ;  gainstand. 


PREFIXES.  121 

6.  Mis  (O.E.  mis,  wrong  ;  and  connected  with  the  verb  to  miss), 
as  in — 

Misdeed.  Mislead.  Mistrust.  Mistake. 

Caution. — When  mis  occurs  in  French  words,  it  is  a  shortened  form 
of  minus,  less  ;  as  in  mischief,  mischance,  miscount,  miscreant  (  =  non- 
believer). 

7.  Th,  the  base  of  the  third  personal  pronoun  and  its  cognates,  and 
indicating  something  spoken  of,  as  in — 

Those.  That.  Thither.  They. 

This.  There.  Thence.  The. 

8.  Un=not,  as 

Unholy.  Undo.  Unbind. 

9.  Wan  (O.E.  wan,  wanting ;  and  connected  with  wane),  which  is 
found  in — 

Wanton  (  =  wantowen,  Wanhope  (  =  despair), 

lacking  education).  Wan  trust. 

10.  With  (a  shortened  form  of  O.E.  wither  —  back  or  against)  is 
found  in — 

Withstand.  Withdraw.  Withhold. 

£3T  It  exists  also  in  a  latent  form  in  the  word  drawing-room  =  withdrawing* 
room. 

15.  The  following  are  the  most  important 

English  Separable  Prefixes  : — 

1.  After,  which  is  found  in — 

Aftergrowth.         Aftermath  {from  mow).         Afternoon. 

2.  All  (O.E.  al,  quite),  which  is  found  in- 

Almighty.  Alone  (quite  by  one's  self).  Almost. 

3.  Forth,  found  in  forthcoming,  forward,  etc. 
i.  Fro  (a  shortened  form  of  from),  in  fro  ward. 

5.  In  appears  in  modern  English  in  two  forms,  as  :— ■ 

(i)  In,  in — 

Income.  Insight.  Instep. 

Inborn.  Inbred.  Inlay. 

(ii)  En  or  em  (which  is  a  Frenchified  form),  in — 

Endear.  Entwine.  Embolden. 

Enlighten.  Embitter. 


122 


GRAMMAR  OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


6.  Of  or  off  (which  are  two  spellings  of  the  same  word),  as- 

Offspring.  Offset. 

Offshoot.  Offal  (that  which  falls  off). 

7.  On,  as  in  onset,  onslaught,  onward. 

8.  Out,  which  takes  also  the  form  of  ut,  as  in — 


Outbreak. 
Outcast. 


Outside. 
Outpost. 


Utter. 
Utmost. 


9.  Over  (the  comparative  of  the  ove  in  above),  which  combines  : — 
(i)  With  nouns,  as  in — 

Overcoat.  Overflow.  Overhand, 

(ii)  With  adjectives,  as  in — 

Over-bold.  Over-merry.  Over-proud. 

(Shakespeare  is  very  fond  of  such  forms.) 
(iii)  With  verbs,  as  in — 

Overthrow.  Overspread.  Overhear. 

10.  Thorough  or  through,  two  forms  of  the  same  word,  as  in — 
Throughout.  Through-train.  Thorough -bred.         Thoroughfare. 

Shakespeare  has  ' '  thorough  bush,  thorough  brier,  thorough  flood,  thorough  fire. 

11.  Twi  =  two,  in  twilight,  twin,  twist,  etc.     (The  form  twi  is  now 
inseparable. ) 

12.  Under,  which  goes  : — 
(i)  With  verbs,  as  in — 

Underlie.  Undersell.  Undergo, 

(ii)  With  nouns,  as  in — 

Underhand.  Underground.  Undertone 

(iii)  With  other  words,  as  in — 


Underneath. 

Underlying. 

13.  Up,  which  goes: — 

(i)  With  verbs,  as  in — 

Upbear. 

Upbraid. 

Uphold. 

(ii)  With  nouns,  as  in — 

Upland. 

Upstart. 

Upshot. 

(iii)  With  other  words,  as 

in — 

Upright. 

Upward. 

PREFIXES.  1  2  3 

16.  There  are  in  use  in  our  language  many  Latin  Prefixes ; 
and  many  of  them  are  of  great  service.  Some  of  them,  as 
circum  (about),  come  to  us  direct  from  Latin ;  others,  like 
counter  (against),  have  come  to  us  through  the  medium  of 
French.       The  following  are  the  most  important 

Latin  Prefixes : — 

1.  A,  ab,  abs  (Fr.  a,  av),  away  from,  as  in — 

Avert.  Abjure.  Absent.  Abstain. 

Avaunt.  Advantage  (which  ought  to  be  avantage). 

2.  Ad  (Fr.  a),  to,  which  in  composition  becomes  ac,  af,  ag,  al,  an,  ap, 
ar,  as,  at,  to  assimilate  with  the  first  consonant  of  the  root.  The  fol- 
lowing are  examples  of  each  : — 

Adapt.  Affect.  Accord.  Agree. 

Aggression.         Allude.  Annex.  Appeal. 

Arrive.  Assimilate.  Attain.  Attend. 

£3T  All  these  words  come  straight  to  us  from  Latin,  except  agree,  arrive,  and 
attain.  The  following  are  also  French :  Achieve  (to  bring  to  a  chef  or  headX 
amount,  acquaint. 

3.  Amb,  am  (ambi,  about),  as  in — 

Ambition.  Ambiguous.  Amputate. 

4.  Ante  (Fr.  an),  before,  as  in — 

Antedate.  Antechamber.  Ancestor  (=  antecessor). 

5.  Bis,  bi,  twice,  as  in — 

Bisect.  Biscuit  ( =  biscoctus,  twice  baked). 

6.  Circum,  circa,  around,  as  in — 

Circumference.  Circulate.  Circuit. 

7.  Cum,  with,  in  French  com,  which  becomes  col,  con,  cor,  conn,  and 
co  before  a  vowel,  as  in — 

Compound.  Collect.  Content.  Correct. 

Counsel.  Countenance.  Coeval.  Cooperate. 

(i)  In  cost  (from  constare,  to  "stand");  couch  (from  coUoco,  I  place);  cuU 
(from  colligo,  I  collect);  and  cousin  (from  consobrinus,  the  child  of  a  mother's 
sister),  the  prefix  has  undergone  great  changes 

(ii)  Co,  though  of  Latin  origin,  can  go  with  purely  English  words,  as  in  co- 
worker, co-understanding.     These  are  not  desirable  compounds. 

8.  Contra  (Fr.  contre),  against,  which  also  becomes  contro  and 
counter,  as  in — 

Contradict.  Controvert.  Counterbalance, 

(i)  In  counterweigh  and  counterwork  we  find  it  in  union  with  English  roots. 
(Ii)  In  encounter  we  find  it  converted  into  a  root. 


124  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

9.  De  (Ft.  de),  down,  from,  about,  as  in — 

Decline.  Describe.  Defer  (to  a  person} 

It  has  also  two  different  functions.     It  is — 
(i)  negative  in  destroy,  deform,  desuetude,  etc. 
(ii)  intensive  in  desolate,  desiccate  (to  dry  up),  etc. 

10.  Dis,  di  (Fr.  des,  de),  asunder,  in  two,  as  in — 

Dissimilar.  Disarm.  Dismember. 

Differ  (s  becomes  f).     Disease.  Divorce. 

Defy.  Defer  (  =  delay).      Delay. 

(i)  Dis  is  also  joined  with  English  roots  to  make  the  hybrids  disown,  dislike, 
distrust,  distaste. 

Ii.  Ex,  e  (Fr.  es,  e),  out  of,  from,  as  in — 

Exalt.  Exhale.  Expatriate  (patria,  one's  country). 

Elect.  Evade.  Educe. 

(i)  ex  has  a  privative  sense  in  ex-emperor,  etc. 
(ii)  In  amend  (emendo),  astonish  (etonner),  the  e  is  disguised, 
(iii)   In  sample  (short  for  example),  scorch  (O.  Fr.  escorcer),  and  special  (for 
especial),  the  e  has  fallen  away. 

12.  Extra,  beyond,  as  in — 

Extraneous.  Extraordinary.  Extravagant, 

(i)  In  stranger  (O.  Fr.  estranger,  from  Lat.  extraneus)  the  e  has  fallen  away. 

13.  In  (Fr.  en,  em),  in,  into,  which  changes  into  11,  im,  lr,  as  in — 

Invade.  Invent  (to  come  upon).  Infer. 

Illusion.  Improve.  Immigrate. 

Imbue.  Irrigate.  Irradiate. 

Enchant.  Endure.  Envoy. 

(i)  It  unites  with  English  roots  to  make  the  hybrids  embody,  embolden,  endear, 
entrust,  enlighten,  etc. 
(ii)  In  ambush  (Ital.  imboscare,  to  put  one's  self  in  a  wood),  the  in  is  disguised. 

14.  In,  not,  which  becomes  il,  im,  ir,  and  ig,  as  in — 

Inconvenient.         Illiberal.  Impious.  Irrelevant. 

Incautious.  Illegal.  Impolitic.         Ignoble. 

(i)  The  English  prefix  un  sometimes  takes  its  place,  and  forms  hybrids  with 
Latin  roots  in  unable,  unapt,  uncomfortable. 
(ii)  Shakespeare  has  unpossible,  unproper,  and  many  others. 

15.  Inter,  Intro  (Fr.  entre),  between,  among — as  in 

Intercede.  Interpose.  Interfere. 

Introduce.  Entertain.  Enterprise. 

16.  Male  (Fr.  mau),  ill,  as  in — 

Malediction,  (contracted  through  French  into) 
Malison  (opposed  to  Benison).  Maugre. 


PREFIXES. 


125 


17.  Mis  (Fr.  mes,  from  Latin  minus),  less,  as  in — 
Misadventure.  Mischance.  Mischief. 

Caution.  — Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  English  prefix  mis  in  mis- 
take, mistrust,  etc. 

18.  Non,  not,  as  in — 

Nonsense.  Non-existent.  Nonsuit. 

(i)  The  initial  n  has  dropped  off  in  umpire,  formerly  numpire  =  0.  Fr.  nonper** 
Lat.  nonpar,  not  equal. 

(ii)  The  n  has  fallen  away  likewise  from  norange,  napron  (connected  with  nap- 
kin, napery),  etc.,  by  wrongly  cleaving  to  the  indefinite  article  a. 

19.  Ob,  against,  becomes  oc,  of,  op,  etc.,  as  in — 

Obtain.  Occur.  Offend.  Oppose. 

20.  Pene,  almost,  as  in — 

Peninsula.  Penultimate  (the  last  but  one). 

21.  Per  (Fr.  par),  through,  which  becomes  pel,  as  in — 

Pellucid.  Perform.  Perjure. 

Perfect.  Permit.  Pilgrim. 

(i)  Pilgrim  comes  from  peregrinus,  a  person  who  wanders  per  agros,  through 
the  fields,— by  the  medium  of  Itai  pellegrino. 
(ii)  Perhaps  is  a  hybrid. 

22.  Post,  after,  as  in— 

Postpone.  Postdate.  Postscript. 

The  post  is  much  disguised  in  puny,  which  comes  from  the  French  puis  ni=* 
Lat.  post  natus,  born  after.  A  "puisne  (puny)  judge"  is  a  junior  judge,  or  a 
judge  of  a  later  creation. 

23.  Prae,  pre  (Fr.  pre),  before,  as  in— 

Predict.  Presume.  Pretend.  Prevent, 

(i)  It  is  shortened  into  a  pr  in  prize,  prison,  comprise  (all  from  prehendo,  I  seize), 
(ii)  It  is  disguised  in  provost  (prepositus,  one  placed  over),  in  preach  (from  pros 
dico,  I  speak  before),  and  provender  (from  prozbeo,  I  furnish). 

24.  Praeter,  beyond,  as  in — 

Preternatural.        Preterite  (beyond  the  present).         Pretermit. 

25.  Pro  (Fr.  pour),  which  becomes  pol,  por,  pur,  as  in— 
Pronoun.  Proconsul.  Procure.  Protest. 
Portray.              Portrait.                Pursue.                Purchase. 

26.  Re  (Fr.  re),  back,  again,  which  becomes  red,  as  in — 
Rebel.  Reclaim.  .  Recover.  Refer. 
Redeem.             Redound.               Readmit.              Recreant. 

(i)  It  is  much  disguised  in  rally  (  =  re-ally),  in  ransom  (a  shortened  Fr.  form  of  r* 
demption),  and  in  runagate  (  =  renegade,  one  who  has  denied — negavit — his  faith) 
(ii)  It  combines  with  English  roots  to  form  the  hybrids  relay,  reset,  recall. 
K 


126  GRAMMAR  OF  THE    ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

27.  Retro,  backwards — as  in  retrograde,  retrospect. 

(i)  It  is  disguised  in  rear -guard  (O.F.  arieregarde),  rear,  and  arrears. 

28.  Se  (Fr.  se),  apart,  which  becomes  sed,  as  in — 

Secede.  Seclude.  Seduce.  Sedition. 

29.  Sub  (Fr.  sous  or  sou),  under,  which  becomes  sue,  suf,  sud,  sum, 
sup,  sur,  and  sus,  as  in — 

Subtract.  Succour.  Suffer.  Suggest. 

Summon.  Supplant.  Surrender.  Suspend. 

(i)  Sub  is  disguised  in  sojourn  (from  O.  Fr.  sojorner,  from  Low  Latin  subdiurndre), 
and  in  sudden  (from  Latin  subitaneus). 

(ii)  It  combines  with  English  roots  to  form  the  hybrids  sublet,  subworker,  sub- 
kingdom,  etc. 

30.  Subter,  beneath — as  in  subterfuge. 

31.  Super  (Fr.  sur),  above,  as  in — 

Supernatural.  Superpose.  Superscription. 

Surface  (superficies).         Surname.  Surtout  (over-all). 

(i)  It  is  disguised  in  sovereign  (which  Milton  more  correctly  spells  sovran),  from 
Low  Latin  superanus. 

32.  Trans  (Fr.  tres),  beyond,  which  becomes  tra,  as  in  — 
Translate.  Transport.  Transform.  Transitive. 
Tradition.             Traverse.                Travel. 


(i)  It  is  disguised  in  treason  (the  Fr.  form  of  tradition,  from  trado  (=transdo), 
I  give  up),  in  betray  and  traitor  (from  the  same  Latin  root),  in  trance  and  entrance 
(Latin  transitu*,  a  passing  beyond),  and  in  trestle  (from  Latin  diminutive  transtil- 
lum,  a  little  cross-beam). 

33.  Ultra,  beyond,  as  in — 

Ultra-Liberal.  Ultra-Tory.  Ultramontane, 

(i)  In  outrage  (O.  Fr.  oultrage)  the  ultra  is  disguised. 

34.  Unus,  one,  which  becomes  uu  and  uni,  as  in — 
Unanimous.  Uniform.  Unicorn. 

35.  Vice  (Fr.  vice),  in  the  place  of,  as  in — 

Viceroy.  Vicar.  Vice-chancellor.  Viscount. 

17.  Our  language  possesses  also  a  considerable  number  of 
prefixes  transferred  from  the  Greek  language,  many  of  which 
are  very  useful.     The  following  are  the  most  important 

Greek  Prefixes : — 

1.  An,  a  {av,  a),  not,  as  in — 

Anarchy.        Anonymous.        Apteryx  (the  wingless).        Atheist. 

2.  Amphi  (a/mipl),  on  both  sides,  as  in — 

Amphibious.  Amphitheatre. 


PREFIXES. 


127 


3.  Ana  (ayd)}  up,  again,  back,  as  in — 

Anatomy.  Analysis.  Anachronism. 

4.  Anti  (ivri),  against  or  opposite  to,  as  in— 

Antidote.  Antipathy.  Antipodes.  Antarctic. 

5.  Apo  (dirJ),  away  from,  which  also  becomes  ap,  as  in —  , 

Apostate.  Apostle.  Apology.  Aphelion. 

6.  Arch,  archl,  arche  (apxt),  chief,  as  in — 

Archbishop.         Archangel.  Architect  Archetype. 

7.  Auto  (avr6s)t  self,  which  becomes  auth,  as  in — 

Autocrat  Autograph.  Autotype.  Authentic. 

8.  Cata,  cat  (Kara),  down,  as  in — 

Catalogue.  Catapult.  Catechism.  Cathedral. 

9.  Dia  (8ia),  through,  across,  as  in — 

Diameter.  Diagram.  Diagonal. 

(i)  This  prefix  is  disguised  in  devil-^from  Gr.  diabolos,  the  accuser  or  slanderer, 
from  Gr.  didballein,  to  slander. 

10.  Dis,  dl  (5is),  twice,  as  in — 

Dissyllable.  Diphthong.  Diglott. 

11.  Dys  (8vs),  ill,  as  in — 

Dysentery.  Dyspeptic  (contrasts  with  Eupeptic). 

12.  Ec,  ex  (At,  ££),  out  of,  as  in — 

Eccentric.  Ecstasy.  Exodus.  Exotic. 

13.  En  (&),  in,  which  becomes  el  and  em,  as  in — 

Encyclical.  Encomium.  Ellipse.  Emphasis. 

14.  Epi,  ep  {iirl),  upon,  as  in— 

Epitaph.  Epiphany.  Epoch.  Ephemeral. 

15.  Eu  («3),  well,  which  also  becomes  ev,  as  in — 

Euphemism.  Eulogy.  Evangelist. 

16.  Heml  (V0»  half.  ■■  m — 

Hemisphere.  Hemistich  (half  a  line  in  poetry). 

17.  Hyper  (tnrtp),  over  and  above,  as  in — 

Hyperborean.       Hyperbole.       Hypercritical.       Hypermetrical. 

18.  Hypo,  hyp  (vtt6),  under,  as  in — 

Hypocrite.  Hypotenuse.  Hyphen. 

19.  Meta,  met  {^ri),  after,  changed  for,  as  in — 

Metaphor.         Metamorphosis.         Metonymy.         Method. 

20.  Mono,  mon  [fxSvos),  alone,  as  in — 

Monogram.        Monody.  Monad.  Monk. 


128 


GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


21.  Pan  (trau — stem  iravr-),  all,  as  in — 

Pantheist.         Panacea.  Panorama.  Pantomime. 

22.  Para  {rrapd),  by  the  side  of,  which  becomes  par,  as  in — 


Paradox. 


Parallel. 


23.  Peri  (-Kepi),  round,  as  in- 
Perimeter.         Period. 

24 


Parish. 


Perigee. 


Parody. 
Periphery. 


Pro  {TrpS),  before,  as  in — 
Prophet.  Prologue.  Proboscis.  Problem. 

25.  Pros  {irpSs),  towards,  as  in — 

Prosody.  Proselyte. 

26.  Syn  (<rvv),  with,  which  becomes  syl,  sym,  and  sy,  as  in — 

Syntax.  Synagogue.  Syllable. 

Sympathy.  Symbol.  System. 

18.  The  Suffixes  employed  in  the  English  language  are  much 
more  numerous  than  the  Prefixes,  and  much  more  useful.  Like 
the  Prefixes,  they  come  to  us  from  three  sources — from  Old 
English  (or  Anglo-Saxon) ;  from  Latin  (or  French) ;  and  from 
Greek. 

19.  The  following  are  the  most  important 
■ 

English  Suffixes  to  Nouns : — 

1.  Ard  or  art  (  =  habitual),  as  in — 

Braggart.         Coward.  Drunkard.         Dullard. 

Laggard.  Niggard.  Sluggard.  Wizard. 

2.  Craft  (skill),  as  in — 

Leechcraf t  ( =  medicine).         Priestcraft.         "Witchcraft. 
Woodcraft.  Rimecraft  (old  name  for  Arithmetic). 

3.  D,  t  or  th  (all  being  dentals),  as  in — 

(i)  Blood  (from  blow,  said       Blade  (from  the  same).      Deed  (do). 


of  flowers). 
Flood  (flow). 

(ii)  Drift  (drive). 
Flight  (fly). 

Rift  (rive). 

(iii)  Aftermath  (mow) 
Death  (die). 
Mirth  (merry). 


Seed  (sow). 

Drought  (dry). 
Height  (high :  Milton 
uses  highth). 
Theft  (thieve). 

Berth  (bear). 
Earth  (ear  =  plough) 
Sloth  (slow). 


Thread  (throw). 

Draught  (draw). 
Shrift  (shrive). 

Weft  (weave). 

Dearth  (dear). 
Health  (heal). 
Tilth  (till). 


SUFFIXES.  129 

4.  Dom  (O.E.  d6m=doom),  power,  office,  from  deman,  to  judge,  as 
in — 

Dukedom.  Kingdom.  Halidom  (= holiness). 

Christendom.  Thraldom.  Wisdom. 

(i)  In  O.E.  we  had  6tsceop<Wm(=bishopdom);  and  Carlyle  has  accustomed  us 
to  rascaldom  and  scoundreldom. 

5.  En  (a  diminutive),  as  in — 

Chicken  (cock).  Kitten  (cat).  Maiden, 

(i)  The  addition  of  a  syllable  has  a  tendency  to  modify  the  preceding  vowel— as 
in  kitchen  (from  cook),  vixen  (from  fox),  and  national  (from  nation). 

6.  Er,  which  has  three  functions,  to  denote — 
(i)  An  agent,  as  in — 

Baker.  Dealer.  Leader.  Writer. 

(ii)  An  Instrument,  as  in — 

Finger  (from  O.E.  fangan,  to  take).     Stair  (from  stigan,  to  mount) 

(iii)  A  male  agent,  as  in — 

Fuller  (from  fuUian,  to  cleanse).  Player.  Sower. 

I3T  The  ending  er  has  become  disguised  in  liar  and  sailor  (not  sailer, 
which  is  a  ship).  Under  the  influence  of  Norman-French,  an  i  or  y 
creeps  in  before  the  r,  as  in  collier  (from  coal),  lawyer,  glazier  (from 
glass),  etc. 

7.  Hood  (O.E.  h&d),  state,  rank,  person,  as  in — 

Brotherhood.  Childhood.  Priesthood.         Wifehood, 

(i)  In  Godhead,  this  suffix  takes  the  form  of  head. 

8.  Ing  (originally = son  of)  part,  as  in — 

Farthing  {fourth).     Riding  (thriding—thirding).      Tithing  (tenth). 

(i)  This  suffix  is  found  as  a  patronymic  in  many  proper  names,  such  as  Brown- 
ing, Harding ;  and  in  Kensington,  Whittington,  etc. 

(ii)  Lording  (=the  son  of  a  lord)  and  whiting  (from  white)  are  also  diminutives. 

(iii)  This  ing  is  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  ing  (=ung)  which  was 
the  old  suffix  for  verbal  nouns,  as  clothing,  learning,  etc. 

9.  Kin  (a  diminutive),  as  in — 

Bodkin.         Firkin  (from  four).        Lambkin.         Mannikin. 

Found  also  In  proper  names,  as  in  Dawkins  (= son  of  little  David),  Jenkins  (= son 
of  little  John),  Hawkins  (son  of  little  Hat),  Perkins  (=son  of  little  Peter). 

10.  Ling=  1  +  lng  (both  diminutives),  as  in — 

Darling  (from  dear).  Duckling.  Gosling  (goose). 

Firstling.  Hireling.  Nestling. 

(i)  Every  diminutive  has  a  tendency  to  run  into  depreciation,  as  in  ground- 
ling, underling,  worldling,  etc. 

(ii)  In  some  words,  ing  has  been  weakened  into  y  or  ie,  as  in  Johnnie,  Silly, 
Betty,  etc. 


130  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

11.  Le  or  1,  as  in — 

Beadle  (from  beodan,  to  bid).        Bundle  (bind).        Saddle  (seat). 
Settle  (seat).  Nail.  SaiL 

12.  Lock  (O.E.  lac,  gift,  sport),  which  also  becomes  ledge,  as  in — 

Knowledge.  Wedlock.  Feohtldc  (battle). 

(i)  This  is  not  to  he  confused  with  the  lock  and  lick  in  the  names  of  plants, 
which  in  O.E.  was  Uac,  and  which  we  find  in  hemlock,  charlock,  and  garlick 
(= spear  plant).    Lac,  sport,  reappears  in  lark,  a  trick  (intrusive  r). 

13.  Ness  forms  abstract  nouns  from  adjectives,  as  in — 

Darkness.         Holiness.         Weakness.         Weariness. 

(i)  Witness  differs  from  the  above  in  two  respects  :  (a)  it  comes  from  a  verb — 
witan,  to  know  ;  and  (&)  is  not  always  an  abstract  noun. 

(ii)  This  English  suffix  combines  very  easily  with  foreign  roots,  as  in  acute- 
ness,  commodiousnes8,  gracefulness,  remoteness,  and  many  others. 

14.  Nd  (which  is  the  ending  of  the  present  participle  in  O.E.),  found 
in— 

Friend  (=the  loving  one).  Fiend  (=the  hating  one). 

Errand.  Wind  (from  a  root  vd,  to  blow). 

15.  Ock  (a  diminutive),  as  in — 

Bullock.  Hillock.  Ruddock  (=redbreast). 

(i)  In  hawk  (=the  seizer.  from  have)  this  suffix  is  disguised. 
(ii)  It  is  also  found  in  proper  names,  as  in — 

Pollock  (from  Paul).        Maddox  (from  Matthew).        Wilcox  (from  William). 

16.  M  or  om,  which  forms  nouns  from  verbs,  as  in — 

Bloom  (from  blow).  Qualm  (from  quell). 

Gloom  (from  glow).  Seam  (from  sew). 

Gleam  (from  glow).  Team  (from  tow). 

(i)  This  suffix  unites  with  the  Norman-French  word  rial  (royal)  to  form  the 
hybrid  realm. 

17.  Red  (mode,  fashion — and  also  counsel),  as  in — 

Hatred.  Kindred.  Sibrede  (relationship). 

(i)  This  ending  is  also  found  in  proper  nouns.  Thus  we  have  Mildred— mild, 
in  counsel;  Ethelredj=nobte  in  counsel,  called  also  Unrede,  which  does  not  mean 
unready,  but  without  counsel. 

18.  Rlc  (O.E.  rice,  power,  dominion) — as  in  bishopric, 
(i)  In  O.E.  we  had  abbotric,  hevenricke,  and  kingric. 

19.  Ship    (O.E.  scipe,   shape    or   form),  which  is  also  spelled  scape 
and  skip,  makes  abstract  nouns,  as  in — 

Fellowship.  Friendship.  Lordship 

Landscape.  Workmanship.  Worship  (=worthship). 

(i)  Milton  writes  landskip  for  landscape. 


SUFFIXES.  131 

20.  Stead  (O.E.  st^de,  place),  as  in— 

Bedstead.  Homestead.  Hampstead.  Berkhamstead. 

21.  Sterwas  originally  the  feminine  of  er,the  suffix  for  a  male 
agent :  it  has  now  two  functions  : — 

(i)  It  denotes  an  agent,  as  in — 

Huckster  (hawker).         Maltster.         Songster.         Roadster, 
(ii)  It  has  an  element  of  depreciation  in — 

Gamester.  Punster.  Oldster.  Youngster. 

(ili)  We  had,  in  Old  English,  barter  (fern,  of  baker),  webster  (weaver),  brew- 
steryftthelstre  (fiddler),  seameatre  (sewer),  and  even  belleringestre  (for  female  bell- 
ringer).    Most  of  these  are  now  used  as  proper  names. 

(iv)  Spinster  is  the  feminine  of  spinner,  one  form  of  which  was  spinder, 
which  then  became  spider. 

22.  Ther,  der,  or  ter  denotes  the  agent  or  instrument.     (Ter  and 
der  sometimes  form  abstract  nouns — as  in  laughter  and  murder). 

Father.  Mother.  Sister.  Brother. 

Bladder  {blow).  Rudder  {row).  Fodder.  Lather. 

23.  Wright  (from  work,  by  metathesis  of  the  r),  as  in — 

Shipwright.       Wainwright  (= waggon wright).        Wheelwright. 

24.  Ward,  a  keeper,  as  in — 

Hayward.  Steward  (= sty -word).  Woodward. 

(i)  Ward  has  also  the  Norman- French  form  of  guard. 

(ii)  In  steward,  the  word  stlgo  or  sty  meant  stall  for  horses,  cows,  etc 

20.  The  following  are  the  most  important 

English  Suffixes  to  Adjectives  : — 

1.  Ed  or  d,  the  ending  for  the  passive  participle,  as  in — 

Cold  (  —  chilled).         Long-eared.         Lauded.         Talented. 

2.  En,  denoting  material,  as  in — 

Golden.  Silvern.  Flaxen.  Hempen. 

Oaken.  Wooden.  Silken.  Linen  (from  lin,  flax) 

3.  En,  the  old  ending  for  the  passive  participle,  as  in — 

Drunken.  Forlorn.  Molten.  Hewn. 

4.  Ern,  denoting  quarter,  as  in — 

Eastern.  Western.  Northern.         Southern. 

5.  Fast  (O.E.  faest,  firm),  as  in- 

Steadfast.         Rootfast.         Shamefast  (wrongly  shamefaced). 

6.  Fold  (O.E.  feald),  as  in- 

Twofold.  Threefold.  Manifold, 

(i)  Simple,  from  Lat.  simplex,  has  usurped  the  place  of  an/eald  -  onefold. 


132  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

7.  Ful  =  full,  as  in- 

Hateful.  Needful.  Sinful  Wilful 

8.  Ish  (O.E.  lsc)  has  three  functions  ;  it  denotes  : — 
(i)  Partaking  in  the  nature  of,  as  in — 

Boorish.  Childish.  Churlish.  "Waspish, 

(ii)  A  milder  or  sub-form  of  the  quality,  as  in — 

Blackish.  Greenish.  Whitish.  Goodish. 

(iii)  A  patrial  relation  as  in — 

English.  Irish.  Scottish.  Welsh  (=  Wylisc). 

9.  Le,  with  a  diminutive  tendency,  as  in — 

Little  [lyt).        Brittle  (from  break).         Fickle  {unsteady), 

10.  Less  (O.E.  leas),  loose  from,  as  in — 

Fearless.  Helpless.  Sinless.  Toothless. 

11.  Like  (O.E.  lie),  softened  in  ly,  as  in — 

Childlike.         Dovelike.         Wifelike.         Warlike. 

Godly.  Manly.  Womanly.      Ghastly  ( =  ghostlike). 

12.  Ow  (O.E.  u  and  we),  as  in — 

Narrow.  Callow.  Fallow.  Yellow. 

(i)  Fallow  is  connected  with  the  adjective  pale,  and  yellow  with  the  yol  Ijj 
yolk. 

13.  Right,  with  the  sense  of  direction,  as  in — 

Forthright.  Downright.  Upright. 

14.  Some  (O.E.  sum,  a  form  of  same,  like),  as  in — 

Buxom  (from  bugan,         Gladsome.  Lissom  (= lithesome). 

to  bend). 
Irksome.  Gamesome.  Winsome. 

15.  Teen  (O.E.  tyne)  —  ten  by  addition,  as  in — 

Thirteen.  Fourteen.  Fifteen.  Sixteen. 

(i)  In  thirteen  =  three  +  ten,  the  r  has  changed  its  place  hy  metathesis, 
(ii)  In  fifteen,  the  hard /has  replaced  the  soft  v. 

16.  Ty  (O.E.  tig)  =  tens  by  multiplication,  as  in — 

T  wen  by  (  =  twain-ty).        Thirty  (  =  three-ty).         Forty. 

17.  Ward  (O.E.  weard,  from  weorthan,  to  become),  denoting  direc- 
tion, as  in — 

Fro  ward  (from).  Toward.  Untoward. 

Awkward  (from  awJc,  Forward.  Wayward, 

contrary). 

(i)  This  ending,  ward,  has  no  connection  with  ward,  a  keeper.    It  is  connected 
with  the  verh  worth  in  the  line,  "Woe  worth  the  chase,  woo  worth  the  day  I " 


SUFFIXES.  133 

18.  Wise  (O.E.  wis,  wise),  as  in- 
Righteous  (properly  rightwiac).         Weatherwise. 

(i)  The  English  or  Teutonic  ending  wise  has  got  confused  with  the  Lat.  ending 
ous  (from  osus  =  full  of). 

19.  Y  (O.E.  lg,  the  guttural  of  which  has  vanished)  forms  adjectives 
from  nouns  and  verbs,  as  in — 

Bloody.  Crafty.  Dusty.  Heavy  (heave). 

Mighty.  Silly  (soul).  Stony.  Weary. 

21.  The  following  are  the  most  important 

English  Suffixes  for  Adverbs : — 

1.  Ere,  denoting  place  In,  as  in 

Here.  '    There.  Where. 

2.  Es  or  s  (the  old  genitive  or  possessive),  which  becomes  se  and  ce, 
as  in — 

Needs.  Besides.  Sometimes.  Unawares. 

Else.  Hence.  Thence.  Once. 

(I)  "  I  must  needs  go"  =  of  need. 

3.  Ly  (O.E.  lice,  the  dative  of  lie),  as  in- 

Only  (=onely).  Badly.  Willingly.  Utterly. 

4.  Ling,  long,  denotes  direction,  as  in — 

Darkling.  Grovelling.  Headlong.  Sidelong. 

(i)  Grovelling  is  not  really  a  present  participle ;  it  is  an  adverb,  and  was  in 
O.E.  gruflynges. 
(ii)  Headlong  and  sidelong  were  in  Middle  English  hedling  and  sideling. 

5.  Meal  (O.E.  maelum  =  at  times),  as  in —    . 

Piecemeal.  Limbmeal. 

(i)  Shakespeare,  in  "  Cymbeline,"  has  the  line— 

**  O  that  I  had  her  here,  to  tear  her  limbmeal." 
(ii)  Chaucer  has  stound-meal  =  hour  by  hour ;  King  Alfred  has  stykkemaelum 
=  stick-meal,  or  here  and  there. 

6.  Om  (an  old  dative  plural),  as  in — 

Whilom  ( =  in  old  times).  Seldom  (from  seld,  rare). 

7.  Ther,  which  denotes  place  to,  as  in — 

Hither.  Thither.  Whither. 

8.  Ward  or  wards,  which  denotes  direction,  as  in — 

Homeward.  Homewards.        Backwards.       Downwards. 

9.  Wise  (O.E.  wis,  manner,  mode),  as  in— 

Anywise.  Nowise.  Otherwise.         Likewise. 

"  Some  people  are  wise ;  and  some  are  otherwise." 


134  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

22.  The  following  are  the  most  important 

English  Suffixes  for  Verbs  : — 

1.  Le  or  i  has  two  functions  : — 
(i)  Frequentative,  as  in— 

Dabble  (dab).            Grapple  (grab).  Waddle  (wade). 
Dribble  (drif).           Drizzle  (from  dreosan,  to  fall).       Jostle, 
(ii)  To  form  verbs  of  Imitative  origin,  as  in— 

Crackle.                               Jingle.  Hustle. 

Gabble.                                Mumble.  Tinkle. 

2.  Er  or  r  adds  a  frequentative  or  intensive  force  to  the  original 
verb,  as  in — 

Batter  {beat).  Chatter.  Glitter  (glow).       Flutter  (flit). 

Glimmer  (gleam).       Clatter.  Sputter  (spit). 

Stagger.  Stammer.  Stutter.  Welter. 

Er  has  also  the  function  of  making  causative  verbs  out  of  adjectives,  as  linger 
(long),  lower,  hinder. 

3.  En  or  n  makes  causative  verbs  out  of  nouns  and  adjectives,  as  in — 

Brighten.  Fatten.  Lighten.  Lengthen. 

Broaden.  Gladden.  Soften.  Sweeten. 

4.  K  has  a  frequentative  force,  as  in — 

Hark  (hear).  Stalk  (steal).  Talk  (tell). 

5.  S  or  se  has  a  causative  force,  as  in — 

Cleanse  (clean).  Curse.  Rinse  (from  hreinn). 

23.  The  Suffixes  of  Latin  origin  are  of  great  importance ;  and 
they  have  been  of  great  use  for  several  centuries.  Many  of 
them — indeed,  most  of  them — have  been  influenced  by  passing 
through  French  mouths,  and  hence  have  undergone  consider- 
able change.     The  following  are  the  chief 

Latin  and  French  Suffixes  for  Nouns : — 

1.  Age   (Lat.   aticum),  which  forms  either  abstract  or  collective 
nouns,  as  in — 

Beverage.  Courage.  Carnage.  Homage. 

Marriage.  Personage.  Vassalage.  Vintage. 

(i)  It  unites  easily  with  English  roots  to  form  hybrids,  as  in  bondage,  mileage, 
tonnage,  'poundage,  tillage,  shrinkage. 

2.  An,  ain,  or  ane  (Lat.  anus),  connected  with,  as  in — 

Artisan.  Pagan.  Publican.  Roman. 

Chaplain.  Captain.  Humane.  Mundane, 

(i)  The  suffix  is  disguised  in  sovereign  (O.  Fr.  soverain),  which  has  been  wrongly 
supposed  to  have  something  to  do  with  reign  ;  in  warden,  citizen,  dean,  etc. 
Milton  always  spells  sovereign,  sovran. 


SUFFIXES.  135 

8.  Al  or  el  (Lat.  fills),  possessing  the  quality  of,  as  in — 

AnimaL  Cardinal.  CanaL  Channel. 

Hospital.  HosteL  HoteL  SpitaL 

(i)  Canal  and  channel  are  two  different  forms — doublets-  of  the  same.    Bo  are 
cattle  and  chattels  (capitalia) 

(ii)  Hospital,  spital,  hostel,  hotel,  are  four  forms  of  the  one  Latin  word 
hospitale.    (Ostler  is  a  shorter  form  of  hosteller,  with  a  dropped  h.) 

4.  Ant  or  ent  (Latin  antem  or  entem),  denotes  an  agent,  as  in — 

Assistant.  Servant.  Agent.  Student. 

5.  Ance,  ancy,  or  ence,  ency  (Lat.  antia,  entla),  form  abstract  nouns, 
as  in — 

Abundance,  Chance.  Distance.  Brilliancy. 

Diligence.  Indulgence.        Constancy.  Consistency, 

(i)  Chance  comes  from  late  Lat.  cadentia-  an  accident.    Cadence  is  a  doublet 

6.  Ary,  ry,  or  er  (Lat.  arium),  a  place  where  a  thing  is  kept,  as  in — 

Apiary  (apis,  a  bee).      Armoury.       Granary.         Sanctuary. 
Treasury.  Vestry.  Larder.  Saucer. 

(i)  The  ending  ry  unites  freely  with  English  words  to  form  hybrids,  as  in 
cookery,  piggery,  robbery. 

(ii)  In  Jewry,  jewellery  (ox  jewelry),  poultry,  peasantry,  cavalry,  the  ry  has  a  col- 
lective meaning. 

7.  Ary,  ler,  eer,  or  er  (Lat.  arius),  denotes  a  person  engaged  in  some 
trade  or  profession,  as  in — 

Commissary.  Notary.  Secretary.  Statuary. 

Brigadier.  Engineer.  Mountaineer.  Mariner, 

(i)  This  ending  is  disguised  in  chancellor  (cancellarius),  vicar,  butler  (=bottler\ 
usher  (ostiarius,  a  doorkeeper),  premier,  etc. 

8.  Ate  (Lat.  atus,  past  participle  ending),  becoming  in  French  e  or  ee, 
denotes — 

(i)  An  agent,  as  in— 

Advocate.  Curate.  Legate.  Renegade, 

(ii)  The  object  of  an  action,  as  in— 

Grantee.  Legatee.  Trustee.  Vendee, 

t3T  In  grandee  the  passive  signification  is  not  retained. 


9.  Ce  (Lat  ciuxn,  tlum,  or  tla)  forms  abstract  nouns, 

Benefice.  Prejudice.  Sacrifice. 

Vice.  Service.  Grace. 

10.  El,  le  or  1  (Lat  iilus,  ellus,  etc.),  a  diminutive,  as  in— 
Angle  (a  little  corner).  Buckle  (from  bucca,  the  cheek). 
Castle.         Chapel         LibeL         Pommel         Title.        Seal 

(i)  A  buckle  used  to  have  a  cast  of  the  human  face. 

(ii)  Castle,  from  Lat  castellum,  a  little  fort,  from  castrum,  a  fort. 

(iii)  Libel,  from  Lat.  libellus,  a  little  book  (liber). 

(iv)  Pommel,  from  Lat.  pomum,  an  apple. 

(▼)  Seal  from  Lat.  siaillum. 


136  GRAMMAR   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

11.  Era  (Lat.  erna),  denoting  place,  as  in — 

Cavern.  Cistern.  Lantern.  Tavern. 

12.  Et,  ette,  and  let  (Fr.  et,  ette)  all  diminutives,  as  in — 

Bassinette.  Buffet.  Chaplet.  Coronet. 

Goblet.  Gibbet.  Lancet.  Leveret. 

Puppet.  Trumpet.  Ticket.  Turret. 

(i)  The  let  is=l  +  et,  and  is  found  in  bracelet,  fillet,  cutlet,  etc.  It  also  unites 
with  English  words  to  form  hybrids— as  in  hamlet,  leaflet,  ringlet,  streamlet,  etc. 

(ii)  This  ending  is  disguised  in  ballot  (a  small  ball),  chariot  (car),  parrot 
(=perroquet),  etc. 

13.  Ess  (late  Lat.  issa),  a  female  agent,  as  in — 

Empress.  Governess.  Marchioness.  Sorceress. 

(i)  It  unites  with  English  words  to  form  the  hybrids  murderess,  sempstress 
(The  last  is  a  double  feminine,  as  seamestre  is  the  old  word.) 

14.  Ioe,  ise,  or  ess  (Lat.  tla ;  Fr.  esse),  as  in — 

Avarice.  Cowardice.  Justice.  Merchandise. 

Distress.  Largess.  Noblesse.  Riches, 

(i)  It  is  a  significant  mark  of  the  carelessness  with  which  the  English  language 
has  always  been  written,  that  the  very  same  ending  should  appear  in  three 
spellings  in  largess,  noblesse,  riches. 
(ii)  Riches  is  a  false  plural :  it  is  an  abstract  noun,  the  French  form  being  richesse. 

15.  Ice  (Lat.  lcem  ace.  of  nouns  in  x),  which  has  also  the  forms  of 
lse,  ace,  as  in — 

Chalice.  Pumica  Mortise.  Furnace, 

(i)  The  suffix  is  much  disguised  in  radish  (=the  root,  from  radicem). 
(ii)  It  is  also  disguised  in  partridge  and  judge  (judicem). 

16.  Icle  (Lat.  iculus,  ellus,  ulus),  which  appears  also  as  eel  and  sel, 
a  diminutive,  as  in — 

Article  (a  little  joint).        Particle.         Receptacle.         Versicle. 
Parcel  ( varticdla).  Morsel  (from  mordeo,  I  bite). 

Damsel  (dominicella,  a  little  lady). 

(i)  The  ending  is  disguised  in  rule  (regula),  carbuncle  (from  carbo,  a  coal),  uncle 
(avunculus),  and  vessel  (from  vas). 
(ii)  Parcel  and  particle  are  doublets. 

17.  Ine  or  in  (Lat.  inus)  related  to,  as  in — 

Libertine.  Cousin. 

(i)  Cousin  is  a  contraction  —  through  French— of  the  Latin  consobrinus, 
the  child  of  a  mother's  sister. 

(ii)  The  ending  is  disguised  in  pilgrim,  from  peregrinus  =  from  per  agros, 
through  the  fields. 

18.  Ion  (Lat.  i6nem),  which  appears  also  as  tion,  slon,  and,  from 
French,  as  son,  som,  denotes  an  action,  as  in — 


SUFFIXES.  137 

Action.  Opinion.  Position.  Vacation. 

Potion.  Poison.  Benediction.  Benison. 

Redemption.  Ransom.  Malediction.  Malison. 

(i)  Potion,  poison,  and  the  three  other  pairs  are  doublets  —  the  first  having 
come  through  the  door  of  books  straight  from  the  Latin,  the  second  through 
the  mouth  and  ear,  from  French. 

(ii)  Venison  (hunted  flesh,  from  venationem),  season  (sationem,  the  sowing 
time),  belong  to  the  above  set. 

19.  Ment  (Lat.  mentum)  denotes  an  instrument  or  an  act,  as  in— 

Document.  Instrument.  Monument.  Ornament. 

(i)  It  combines  easily  with  English  words  to  make  hybrids,  as  atonement, 
acknowledgment,  bewitchment,  fulfilment. 

20.  Mony  (Lat  monium)  makes  abstract  nouns,  as — 
Acrimony.  Matrimony.  Sanctimony.  Testimony. 

21.  Oon  or  on  (Fr.  on ;  ItaL  one),  an  augmentative,  as  in — 
Balloon.  Cartoon.  Bassoon.  Saloon. 
Flagon.                  Million.                Pennon.                    Medallion. 
Squadron.             Galleon.               Trombone.                Violone. 

(i)  Augmentatives  are  the  opposite  of  diminutives.  Contrast  balloon  and  ballot; 
gmlleon  and  galliot  (a  small  galley). 

(ii)  A  balloon  is  a  large  ball ;  a  cartoon  a  big  carte ;  a  bassoon  a  large  bass  in- 
strument ;  a  saloon  a  large  hall  (salle);  flagon  (O.  Fr.  jlascon),  a  large  flask  ;  million 
a  big  thousand  (mille)  ;  pennon,  a  large  pen  or  feather ;  galleon,  a  large  galley  ;  trom- 
bone, a  large  trump-et ;  violone,  a  double-bass  viol. 

22.  Ory,  (Lat.  orlum),  which  appears  also  as  or,  our,  and  er,  and 
denotes  place,  as  in — 

Auditory.  Dormitory.  Refectory.  Lavatory. 

Mirror.  Parlour.  Dormer.  Manger. 

(i)  Mirror  is  contracted  by  the  French  from  miratorium;  parlour  from  par- 
latorium;  manger  from  manducatorium=the  eating-place.  Dormer  is  short 
for  dormitory,  from  dormitorium. 

23.  Our  (Lat.  or ;  Fr.  eur),  forms  abstract  or  collective  nouns,  as 
in — 

Ardour.  Clamour.  Honour.  Savour, 

(i)  The  ending  resumes  its  French  form  in  grandeur. 
(ii)  It  forms  a  hybrid  in  behaviour. 

24.  Or  or  our  (Lat.  orem  ;  Fr.  eur)  denotes  an  agent,  as  in — 
Actor.  Governor.  Emperor.  Saviour. 

(i)  This  ending  is  disguised  in  interpreter,  labourer,  preacher,  etc. 
(ii)  A  large  number  of  nouns  which  used  to  end  in  our  or  or,  took  er  through 
the  influence  of  the  English  suffix  er.    They  were  "  attracted  "  into  that  form. 


138  GKAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE, 

25.  T  (Lat.  tus— the  ending  of  the  past  participle)  indicates  a  completed 
act,  as  in — 

Act.  Fact.  Joint.  Suit. 

(i)  The  t  in  Latin  has  the  same  origin  and  performs  the  same  function  as  the  d 
in  English  (as  in  dead,  finished,  and  other  past  participles,  etc.) 

(ii)  The  ending  is  disguised  in  feat,  which  is  a  doublet  of  fact,  in  fruit  (Lat. 
fruct-us),  comfit  (—confect),  counterfeit  (=contrafact-um). 

26.  Ter  (Lat.  ter)  denotes  a  person,  as  in — 

Master  (contracted  from  magister).  Minister, 

(i)  Magister  comes  from  magis,  more,  which  contains  the  root  of  magnus,  great ; 
minister  from  minus,  less. 

27.  Tery  (Lat.  terium)  denotes  condition,  as  in— 

Mastery.  Ministry. 

28.  Trix  (Lat.  trix)  denotes  a  female  agent,  as  in — 

Executrix.  Improvisatrix.  Testatrix, 

(i)  This  ending  is  disguised  in  empress  (Tt.  imp4ratrice  from  Lat.  imperatrix) .' 
and  in  nurse  (Fr.  nourrice,  Lat.  nutrix). 

29.  Tude  (Lat.  tudo),  denotes  condition,  as  in— 

Altitude.  Beatitude.  Fortitude.  Multitude, 

(i)  In  custom,  from  Lat.  consuetudinem,  the  ending  is  disguised. 

30.  Ty  (Lat.  tatem ;  Fr.  to*)  makes  abstract  nouns,  as  in — 

Bounty.  Charity.  Cruelty.  Poverty. 

Captivity.  Frailty.  Fealty,  Vanity. 

(i)  Bounty  (bonte),  poverty  (jpauvreU),  frailty,  and  fealty  come,  not  directly 
from  Latin,  hut  through  French. 


m- 


31.  Ure  (Lat.  ura)  denotes  an  action,  or  the  result  of  an  action,  as 

Aperture.  Cincture.  Measure.  Picture. 

32.  Y  (Lat.  ia ;  Fr.  ie)  denotes  condition  or  faculty,  as  in — 

Company.  Family.  Fury.  Victory, 

(i)  This  suffix  unites  easily  with  English  words  in  er— as  bakery,  fishery,  rob- 
bery, etc. 
(ii)  It  stands  for  Lat.  ium  in  augury,  remedy,  study,  subsidy,  etc. 
(iii)  It  represents  the  Lat.  ending  atus  in  attorney,  deputy,  etc. 

24.  The  Latin  (or  French)  suffixes  employed  in  our  language 
to  make  Adjectives  are  very  useful.  The  following  are  the 
chief 

Latin  Suffixes  for  Adjectives. 

1.  Aceous  (Lat.  aceus)  =  made  of,  as  in — 

Argillaceous  (clayey).  Farinaceous  (floury). 


SUFFIXES.  139 

2.  Al  (Lat.  ails)  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 

Legal.  Regal  Loyal  RoyaL 

(i)  Loyal  and  royal  are  the  same  words  as  legal  and  regal;  but,  In  passing 
through  French,  the  hard  g  has  been  refined  into  a  y. 

3.  An,  ane,  or  aln  (Lat.  anus  and  aneus)  =  connected  with,  as  in — 

Certain.         Human  (homo).        Humane.         Pagan  {pagus,-  a 

district), 
(i)  This  ending  disguises  itself  in  mizzen  (medianus);    in  scrivener  (L.*Lat 
scribanus) ;  and  in  sexton  (contracted  from  sacristan). 

(ii)  In  champaign  (level),  and  foreign  (foraneus),  this  ending  greatly  disguises 
itself.  In  strange  (extraneus),  still  more.  All  have  been  strongly  influenced  in 
their  passage  through  the  French. 

4.  Ant,  ent  (Lat.  antem,  entem,  ace.  of  pres.  part.),  as  in  — 

Current  (curro,  I  run).         Distant.        President.        Discordant. 

5.  Ar  (Lat.  aris)  which  appears  also  as  er  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 

Regular.  Singular.  Secular.  Scholar. 

(i)  Scholar  Was  originally  an  adjective  form,  but  we  now  use  scholarly  as  the 
adjective. 

6.  Ary  (Lat.  Sxius),  which  also  takes  the  secondary  formations  of 
arlous  and  arlan  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 

Contrary.  Necessary.  Gregarious.  Agrarian. 

7.  Atic  (Lat.  itlcus)  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 

Aquatic.  Fanatic  (fanum).  Lunatic. 

8.  Able,  lble,  ble   (Lat.  abllis,  ebilis,  Ibilis)  =  capable  of  being, 
as  in — 

Amiable.  Culpable.  Flexible.  Movable. 

(i)  Feeble  (Lat.  flebilis,  worthy  of  being  wept  over),  comes  to  us  through  the 
O.  Fr.  floible. 

(ii)  This  suffix  unites  easily  with.English  roots  to  form  hybrids,  like  eatable, 
drinkable,  teachable,  gullible.    Carlyle  has  also  doable. 

9.  Pie,  ble  (Lat.  plex,  from  plico,  I  fold)  =  the  English  suffix— fold, 
as  in — 

Simple  (  =  onefold).  Double.  Triple.  Treble. 

10.  Esque  (Lat.  iscus  ;  Fr.  esque)  =  partaking  of,  as  in — 

Burlesque.  Grotesque  {grotto).  Picturesque. 

(i)  This  ending  is  disguised  in  morris  (dance)= Moresco  (or  Moorish).      The 
O.E.  patrial  ending  isc  is  disguised  in  French  (= Frencisc),  etc. 

11.  Ic  (Lat.  Icus)  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 
Gigantic.  Metallic.  Public  (populus).  Rustic, 

(i)  This  ending  is  disguised  in   indigo  (from   Indices)   [co\our]  =  the  Indian 
colour.) 


140  GRAMMAR   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

12.  Id  (Lat.  Idus)  =  having  the  quality  of,  as  in — 

Acid.  Frigid.  Limpid.  Morbid. 

13.  He,  il  (Lat.  ills),  often  used  as  &  passive  suffix,  as  in — 

Docile.  Fragile.  Mobile.  Civil 

(i)  Fragile,  in  passing  through  French,  lost  the  g— which  was  always  hard-~ 
and  became  frail. 

(ii)  The  suffix  He  is  disguised  in  gentle  and  subtle. 

(iii)  Gentile,  gentle,  and  genteel,  are  all  different  forms  of  the  same  word. 

(iv)  The  suffix  He  has  often  a  depreciatory  sense  as  in  puerile,  infantile, 
and  servile  (cf.  ish). 

14.  Ine  (Lat.  Inus)  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 

Canine.  Crystalline.  Divine.  Saline. 

(i)  In  marine,  the  ending,  hy  passing  through  French,  has  acquired  a  French 
pronunciation. 

15.  Ive  (Lat.  Ivus)  =  inclined  to,  as  in — 

Abusive.  Active.  Fugitive.  Plaintive. 

(i)  This  ending  appears  also  as  iff,  by  passing  through  French,  as  in  caitiff 
(=  captivus);  and  in  the  nouns  plaintiff  and  bailiff. 

(ii)  It  also  disguises  itself  as  a  y  in  hasty,  jolly,  testy,  which  in  O.  Fr.  were 
hastif,  jollif,  testif(=  heady). 

(iii)  It  unites  with  the  English  word  talk  to  form  the  hybrid  talkative. 

16.  Lent  (Lat.  lentus)  =  full  of,  as  in — 

Corpulent.        Fraudulent.        Opulent  (opes).       Violent  {vis). 

17.  Ory  (Lat.  6rius)  =  full  of,  as  in- 

Amatory.  Admonitory.  Illusory. 

18.  Ose,  ous  (Lat.  5sus)  =  full  of,  as  in — 

Bellicose.  Grandiose.  Verbose.  Curious, 

(i)  The  form  in  oris  has  been  influenced  by  the  French  ending  eux. 

19.  Ous  (Lat.  us)  =  belonging  to,  as  in — 

Anxious.  Assiduous.  Ingenuous.  Omnivorous. 

(i)  It  unites  with  English  words  to  form  hybrids  like  ravenous,  boisterous 
(which  is  a  lengthened  form  of  the  M.  E.  boistous,  from  boist,  noise). 

20.  Und  (Lat.  undus)  =  fuU  of,  as  in- 

Jocund.  Moribund.  Kotund. 

(i)  Rotund  has  been  shortened  into  round.  Second  is,  through  French,  from 
Lat.  secundus  (from  sequor,  I  follow) — the  number  that  follows  the  first.  Ventus 
secundus  is  a  favourable  wind,  or  a  "wind  that  follows  fast." 

(ii)  This  ending  is  slightly  modified  in  vagabond  and  second. 

21.  Ulous  (Lat.  ulus)  =  fuU  of,  as  in — 

Querulous  (full  of  complaint).  Sedulous, 


SUFFIXES.  HI 

25.  The  following  are  the  chief 

Latin  Suffixes  for  Verbs. 

1.  Ate  (Lat.  atum,  supine),  as  in — 

Complicate.  Dilate.  Relate.  Supplicate. 

(i)  Assassinate  (from  the  Arabic  hashish,  a  preparation  of  Indian  hemp,  whose 
effects  are  similar  to  those  of  opium)  is  a  hybrid. 

2.  Esce  (Lat.  esco),  an  inceptive  suffix,  as  in — 

Coalesce  (to  begin  to  grow  together).         Effervesce  (to  begin  to  boil  up.) 

3.  Fy  (Lat.  flco  ;  Fr.  fie — from  Lat.  facio)— to  make,  as  in— 

Beautify.  Magnify.  Signify. 

4.  Ish  (connected  with  Lat  esco) = to  make,  as  in — 

Admonish.  Establish.  Finish.  Nourish. 

5.  Ete,  ite,  t  (Lat  itum,  etum,  turn),  with  an  active  function,  as  in- 

complete. Delete.  Expedite.  Connect. 

26.  The  suffixes  which  the  English  language  has  adopted 
from  Greek  are  not  numerous ;  but  some  of  them  are  very  usefuL 
Most  of  them  are  employed  to  make  nouns.  The  following  are 
the  chief 

Greek  Suffixes. 

1.  Y  (Gr.  ia),  makes  abstract  nouns,  as  in — 

Melancholy.         Monarchy.  Necromancy.         Philosophy, 

(i)  Fancy  is  a  compressed  form  of  phantasy  (phantasia  =  imagination), 
(ii)  In  dyspepsia  and  hydrophobia  we  get  the  Greek  suffix  unchanged. 

2.  Ic  (Gr.  ik6s)= belonging  to,  as  in — 

Aromatic.  Barbaric.  Frantic.  Graphic. 

Arithmetic  Schismatic.  Logic.  Music. 

(f)  With  the  addition  of  the  Latin  alls,  adjectives  are  formed  from  some  of 
these  words,  as  logical,  musical,  etc. 

(ii)  The  plural  form  of 'some  adjectives  also  makes  nouns  of  them,  as  in  politics, 
ethics,  physics.    In  Ireland  we  find  also  logics. 

(iii)  Arithmetic,  logic,  and  music  are  from  Greek  nouns  ending  in  ikS. 

3.  Sis  (Gr.  <m)=-  action,  as  in— 

Analysis.  Emphasis.  Genesis.  Synthesis, 

(i)  In  the  following  words  sis  has  become  sy,  as  hypocrisy,  poesy,  palsy  (short 
for  paralysis). 
(ii)  In  the  following  the  is  has  dropped  away  altogether— ellipse,  phase. 
L 


142  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

4.  Ma  or  m  (Gr.  /xa),  passive  suffix,  as  in — 

Diorama.         Dogma.  Drama  (something  done).    Schism. 

Baptism.          Barbarism.     Despotism.  Egotism. 

(i)  In  diadem  and  system  the  a  has  dropped  off;  in  scheme  and  theme  it  has 
been  changed  into  an  c. 

(ii)  Schism  comes  from  schizo,  I  cut.    The  ending  in  ismos  is  most  frequent. 

(iii)  This  ending  unites  freely  with  Latin  words  to  form  hybrids,  as  in  deism, 
mannerism,  purism,  provincialism,  vulgarism,  etc. 

5.  St  (Gr.  o~Trj$)  =  agent,  as  in — 

Baptist.  Botanist.  Iconoclast  (image-breaker). 

(i)  This  suffix  has  become  a  very  useful  one.  and  is  largely  employed.  It  forma 
numerous  hybrids  with  words  of  Latin  origin,  as  abolitionist,  excursionist,  educa- 
tionist, journalist,  protectionist,  jurist,  socialist,  specialist,  royalist. 

6.  T  or  te  (Gr.  tvs)  =  agent,  as  in — 

Comet.  Planet.  Poet.  Apostate. 

(i)  Comet  means  a  long-haired  star;  planet,  a  wanderer;  poet,  a  maker  (ii? 
Northern  English  poets  called  themselves  "  Makkers  ) ;  an  apostate,  a  person 
who  has  fallen  away. 

(ii)  There  is  a  kindred  ending  ot,  also,  meaning  agent  or  denoting  a  title 
(Gk.  wttj?),  as  in  idiot,  patriot,  zealot. 

7.  Ter  or  tre  (Gr.  rpov),  denotes  an  instrument  or  place,  as  in — 

Metre.  Centre.  Theatre. 

8.  Isk  (Gr.  iff/cos),  a  diminutive,  as  in— 

Asterisk  (a  little  star).  Obelisk  (a  small  spit). 

9.  Ize  or  ise  (Gr.  i£o>)  makes  factitive  verbs,  as  in — 

Baptise.  Criticise.  Judaize.  Anglicize 

(i)  This  ending  combines  with  Latin  words  to  form  the  hybrid*  minindse 
realise,  etc. 


1*5 


WORD  -  BRANCHING. 


When   our  language   was  young   and   uninfluenced  by  othei 

languages,  it  had  the  power  of  growing  words.     These  words, 

like  plants,   grew  from  a  root;   and 

all  the  words  that  grew  from  the  same 

root    had    a    family   likeness.      Thus 

byrn-an,  the   old  word  for  to  hum, 

gave  us  brimstone,  brown  (which  is 

the     burnt     colour),     brunt,     brand, 

brandy,    and    brindle.       These    we 

might  represent  to  ourselves,  on  the 

blackboard,  as  growing  in  this  way. 

But,  unfortunately,  we  soon  lost  this 
power.  From  the  time  when  the  Nor- 
mans came  into  this  country  in  1066,  the  language  became  less 
and  less  capable  of  growing  its  own  words.  Instead  of  produc- 
ing a  new  word,  we  fell  into  the  habit  of  simply  taking  an  old 
and  ready-made  word  from  French,  or  from  Latin,  or  from 
Greek,  and  giving  it  a  place  in  the  language.  Instead  of  the 
Old  English  word  fairhood,  we  imported  the  French  word 
beauty ;  instead  of  forewit,  we  adopted  the  Latin  word  cau- 
tion ;  instead  of  licherest,  we  took  the  Greek  word  cemetery. 
And  so  it  came  about  that  in  course  of  time  we  lost  the  power 
of  growing  our  own  new  worda  The  Greek  word  asterisk 
has  prevented  our  making  the  word  starkin ;  the  Greek  name 
astronomy  has  kept  out  star-craft ;  the  Latin  word  omnibus 
has  stopped  our  even  thinking  of  folkwain;  and  the  name 
vocabulary  is  much  more  familiar  to  our  ears  than  word- 
hoard.      Indeed,    so   strange   have   some   of   our   own   native 


144 


GRAMMAR  OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


English  words  become  to  us,  that  sentences  composed  entirely 
of  English  words  are  hardly  intelligible;  and,  to  make  them 
quickly  intelligible,  we  have  to  translate  some  of  the  English 
words  into  Greek  or  into  Latin.  It  is  well,  however,  for  us  to 
become  acquainted  with  those  pure  English  words  which  grew 
upon  our  own  native  roots,  and  which  owe  nothing  whatever 
to  other  languages.  Eor  they  are  the  purest,  the  simplest,  the 
most  homely  and  the  most  genuine  part  of  our  language ;  and 
from  them  we  can  get  a  much  better  idea  of  what  our  language 
once  was  than  we  can  from  its  present  very  mixed  condition. 
The  following  are  the  most  important 


ENGLISH  ROOTS  AND  BRANCHES  (OR  DERIVATIONS). 


Ac,  an  oak— Acton,  Uckfield. 

Bac-an,  to  bake— baker,  baxter  *  (a  woman 
baker),  batch. 

Ban-a,  a  slayer — bane,  baneful ;  ratsbane, 
henbane. 

Bead-an,  to  pray  —  bedesman  ;  beadle  ; 
bead  ("  to  bid  one's  beads  "  was  to  say 
one's  prayers ;  and  these  were  marked 
off  by  small  round  balls  of  wood  or  glass 
—now  called  beads  —  strung  upon  a 
string) ;  forbid. 

Beat-an,  to  strike  —  beat,  bat  (a  short 
cudgel)  i  battle ;  beetle  (a  wooden  bat 
for  beating  clothes  with) ;  batter  (a  kind 
o*  pudding). 

Beorg-an,  to  shelter— burrow,  bury  (noun 
in  Canterbury  —  and  verb)  ;  burgh, 
burgher ;  burglar  (a  house-robber) ;  har- 
bour, Cold  Harbour ;  2  harbinger  (a  per- 
son sent  on  in  front  to  procure  lodg- 
ings) ;  borrow  (to  raise  money  on  secur- 
ity). 

Ber-an,  to  bear— bear,  bier,  bairn ;  birth, 


berth ;   brood,   brother,  breed,  bird  ;  * 
burden ;  barrow. 

Be't-an,  to  make  good — better,  best ;  boof 
(in  "to  boot  "-"to  the  good"),  boot 
less. 

Bind-an,  to  bind— band,  bond,  bondage 
bundle  ;  woocfbine ;  bindweed. 

Bit-an,  to  bite — bit ;  beetle ;  bait ;  bitter, 

Bla'w-an,  to  puff— bladder,  blain  (chil- 
blain), blast,  blaze  (to  proclaim),  blazon 
(a  proclamation),  blare  (of  a  trumpet) ; 
blister;  blot,  bloat. 

Blow-an,  to  blossom— blow  (said  of  flow- 
ers) ;  bloom,  blossom ;  blood,  blade ; 
blowsy. 

Brec-an,  to  break — break,  breakers ;  brake, 
bracken  ;  breach,  brick  ;  break  -fast ; 
brook  (=the  water  which  breaks  up 
through  the  ground);  brittle  (= brickie 
or  breakable);  bray  (where  the  hard 
guttural  has  been  absorbed). 

Breow-an,  to  brew— brew,  brewer;  broth, 
brose;  bread  (perhaps). 


1  Compare  brewster,  a  woman  brewer,  spinster,  webster,  and  others.  Brewster,  Baxter, 
and  Webster  are  now  only  used  as  proper  names. 

2  Cold  Harbour  was  the  name  given  to  an  inn  which  provided  merely  shelter  without 
provisions.  There  are  numerous  places  of  this  name  in  England.  Many  of  them  stand 
on  the  great  Roman  roads ;  and  they  were  chiefly  the  ruins  of  Roman  villas  used  by 
travellers  who  carried  their  own  bedding  and  provisions.  See  Isaac  Taylor's  '  Words 
and  Places,'  p.  256. 

3  Brid  or  bird  was  originally  the  young  of  any  animal 


WORD-BRANCHING. 


145 


Bug  an,  to  bend— bow,  elbow  ;  *  bough  ; 
bight;  buxom  (O.B.  bocsum,  flexible  or 
obedient).  The  hard  g  in  bvr/an  appears 
as  a  w  in  bow,  as  a  gh  in  bough,  as  a  y 
in  bay,  as  a  k  in  buxom=buk-som. 

Byrn-an,  to  burn— burn,  brown ;  brunt, 
brimstone  ;  brand,  brandy  ;  brindled. 

Catt,  a  cat— catkin;  kitten,  kitling ;  cater- 
pillar (the  hairy  cat,  from  Lat.  pilosus, 
hairy),  caterwaul. 

Ceapi-an,  to  buy— cheap,  cheapen;  chop 
(to  exchange) ;  a  chopping  sea ;  chap, 
chapman;  chaffer;  Eastcheap,  Cheap- 
side,  Chepstow  (=the  market  stow  or 
place),  Chippenham.  2 

Cenn-an,  to  produce— kin,  kind,  kindred ; 
kindly;  kindle. 

Ceow-an,  to  chew — chew ;  cheek  ;  jaw 
(=chaw);  jowl;  chaw-bacon;  cud (= the 
chewed).    Compare  seethe  and  suds. 

Cleov-an,  to  split — cleave,  cleaver ;  cleft ; 
clover  (split  grass). 

Clifi-an,  to  stick  to — cleave;  clip(for  keep- 
ing papers  together) ;  claw  (by  which  a 
bird  cleaves  to  a  tree) ;  clew  (or  clue), 
original  meaning  "  a  mass  of  thread." 

Cnaw-an,  to  know— ken,  know  (=ken-ow 
— ow  being  a  dim.) ;  knowledge. 

Cnotta,  a  knot— knot,  knit,  net  (the  k 
having  been  dropped  for  the  eye,  as  well 
as  for  the  ear). 

Cunn-an,  to  know  or  to  be  able— can,  con  ; 
cunning;  uncouth. 

Cweth-an,  to  say— quoth ;  bequeath. 

Cwic,  alive— quick,  quicken  ;  quickset ; 
quickWm*;  quicksiZrer ;  to  cut  to  the 
quick. 

Dael-an,  to  divide— deal  (verb  and  noun), 
dole  ;  dale,  dell  (the  original  sense  being 
clrft,  or  separated). 

Dem-an,  to  judge— deem,  doom  ;  demp- 
ster  (the  name  for  a  judge  in  the  Isle  of 
Man);  doomsday;  kingdom. 

Deor,  dear— dearth  ;  darling ;  endear. 

D6an,  to  act— do ;  don,  doff,  dup  (=do 
up  or  op-en) ;  dout  ( = do  out  or  put  out) ; 
deed.     Compare  mow,  mead;  sow,  seed. 


Drag  an,    to    draw  —  drag,    draw,    dray 

(three  forms  of  the  same  word);  draft 

(draught)  ;    drain  ;    dredge  ;    draggle  ; 

drawl. 
Drif-an,   to   push — drive  ;   drove ;    drift, 

adrift. 
Drige,  dry— dry  (verb  and  adj.) ;  drought ; 

drugs  (originally  dried  plants). 
Drinc-an,    to    soak— drink ;    drench   (to 

make  to  drink).     Compare  sit,  set ;  fall, 

fell,  etc. 
Drip-an,    to    drip  — drip,    drop,    droop; 

dribble,  driblet. 
Dug-an,  to  be  good  for— do  (in  "  How 

do  you  do?"   and    "That  will  do"); 

doughty. 
Eac,  also — eke  (verb  and  adv.) ;  ekename 

(which  became  a  nickname  ;  the  n  hav- 

ing  dropped  from  the  article  and  clung 

to  the  noun). 
Eage,  eye— Egbert  (= bright-eyed) ;  daisy 

(=day's  eye);  winaow  (  =  wind-eye). 
Eri-an,  to  plough— ear  (the  old  word  foi 

plough) ;  earth  (=  the  ploughed). 
Far-an,  to  go  or  travel— far,  fare ;  welfare, 

fieldfare,  thoroughfare  ;  ferry  :  ford. 
Feng- an,   to   catch— fang,    finger,    new- 
fangled   (catching   eagerly   after    new 

things). 
Fe6wer,  four— farthing  ;  firkin ;  fourteen  ; 

forty. 
Fledg-an,  to  flee— fly,  flight ;  flea;  fledged. 
Fle<5t-an,  to  float— fleet  (noun,  verb,  and 

adj.) ;  float ;  ice-floe  :  afloat ;  flotsam  s 

(things  found  floating  on  the  water  after 

a  wreck). 
F6d-a,  food— feed  ;   food,  fodder,  foster  ; 

fath-er  ;  forage  (=fodderage),    forager  ; 

foray  (an  excursion  to  get  food). 
Freon,  to  love— freond  =  friend  (the  pres. 

part.)  a  lover ;  Fri-day  (the  day  of  Friya, 

the  goddess  of  love)  ;  friendship,  etc. 
Gal-an,  to  sing— gale,  yell ;  nightingale.4 
Gang-an,  to  go  — gang,  gangway;    ago. 

(The  words  gate  and  gait  do  not  come 

from  this  verb,  but  from  get.) 
Gnag-an,  to  bite  — gnaw  (the  g  has  be- 


i  Elbow = ell-bow.    The  ell  was  the  forepart  of  the  arm. 

*  The  same  root  is  found  in  the  Scotch  Kippen  and  the  Danish  Copenhagen= Mer- 
chants' Haven. 

3  "  Flotsam  and  jetsam  "  mean  the  floating  things  and  the  things  thrown  over- 
board from  a  ship.  Jetsam  comes  from  Old  Fr.  jetter,  to  throw.  (Hence  also  "jet  of 
water" ;  jetty,  etc.     Jetsam  is  a  hybrid— sam  being  a  Scandinavian  suffix. 

«  The  n  in  nightingale  is  no  part  of  the  word.  It  is  intrusive  and  non-organic  ;  as 
it  also  is  in  passenger,  messenger,  porringer,  etc. 


146 


GRAMMAR   OP   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


come  a  w) ;  gnat ;  nag  (to  teast.),  con- 
nected with  nail. 

Graf -an,  to  dig  or  cut— grave,  groove, 
grove  (the  original  sense  was  a  lane  cut 
through  trees) ;  graft,  engraft ;  engrave, 
engraver ;  carve  (which  is  another  form 
of  the  verb  grave). 

Grip-an,  to  seize  —  grip,  gripe  ;  grasp  ; 
grab ;  grope. 

Gyrd-an,  to  surround— gird,  girdle ;  gar- 
den, yard,  vineyard,  hopyard. 

Hael-an,  to  heal  —  hale  ;  holy,  hallow, 
All  -  hallows  ;  health  ;  hail ;  whole,  i 
wholesome  ;  wassail  (=Waes  hal  !.=  Be 
whole !) 

Hebb-an,  to  raise— heave,  heave-offering ; 
heavy  (=that  requires  much  heaving); 
heaven. 

Hlaf,  bread— loaf ;  lord  (hlaford  =  loaf- 
ward)  ;  lady  (=  hlaf-dige,  from  dig-an,  to 
knead)  ;  Lammas  (= Loaf-mass,  Aug.  1 ; 
a  loaf  was  offered  on  this  day  as  the 
offering  of  the  first-fruits). 

Le&c,  a  leek— house-leek ;  garlic  ;  hem- 
lock. 

Licg-an,  to  lie  — lie;  lay,  layer;  lair; 
outlay. 

Loda,  a  guide— lead  (the  verb) ;  lode-star, 
lode-stone  (also  written  loadstone). 

Mag-an,  to  be  able— may,  main  (in  "might 
and  main  "),  might,  mighty. 

Mang,  a  mixture  —  a-mong  ;  mongrel ; 
mingle;  cheesemonger. 

Maw-an,  to  cut — mow ;  math,  aftermath ; 
mead,  meadow  (the  places  where  grass  is 
mowed). 

M6n-a,  the  moon  —  month  ;  moonshine. 
(This  word  comes  from  a  very  old  root, 
ma,  to  measure.  Our  Saxon  forefathers 
measured  by  moons  and  by  nights,  as 
we  see  in  the  words  fortnight,  se'nnight.) 

Naeddre,  a  snake  — adder.  The  n  has 
dropped  off  from  the  word,  and  has  ad- 
hered to  the  article.  Compare  apron, 
from  naperon  (compare  with  napkin, 
napery) ;  umpuv,  from  numpire.  The 
opposite  example  of  the  n  leaving  the 
article  and  adhering  to  the  noun,  is 
found  in  newt,  from  an  eft ;  nickname 
from  an  ekename. 

Nosu,  a  nose— nose,  naze,  ness  (all  three 
different  forms  of  the  same  word,  and 


found  in  the  Naze,  Sheerness,  etc.) ; 
nostril  =  nose-thirl  (from  thirlian,  to 
bore  a  hole),  nozzle ;  nosegay. 

Penn-an.  to  shut  up  or  enclose — pen,  pin 
(two  forms  of  the  same  word)  ;  pound, 
pond  (two  forms  of  the  same  word) ; 
impound. 

Pic,  a  point— pike,  peak  (two  forms  of  the 
same  word) ;  pickets  (stakes  driven  into 
the  ground  to  tether  horses  to);  pike, 
pickerel  (the  fish)  ;  peck,  pecker. 

Rded-an,  to  read  or  guess — rede  (advice)  ; 
riddle;  Ethelred  (= noble  in  counsel); 
Unready  (=Unrede,  without  counsel); 
Mildred  (=mild  in  counsel). 

Reaf,  clothing,  spoil ;  reafi-an,  to  rob — rob, 
robber;  reave,  bereave;  reever;  robe. 

Ripe,  ripe— reap  (to  gather  what  is  ripe). 

Scad-an,  to  divide  —  shed  (to  part  the 
hair) ;  watershed. 

Sceap-an,  to  form  or  fashion— shape ;  ship 
(the  suffix  in  friendship,  etc.) ;  scape 
(the  suffix  in  landscape,   etc.) 

Sce6t-an,  to  throw  —  shoot,  shot,  shut 
(=to  shoot  the  bolt  of  the  door) ;  sheet 
(that  which  is  thrown  over  a  bed) ;  shut- 
ter, shuttle ;  scud. 

Scer-an,  to  cut — shear,  share,  sheer,  shire, 
shore  (all  forms  of  the  same  word) ;  scar, 
scare;  score  (the  twentieth  notch  in 
the  tally,  and  made  larger  than  the 
others) ;  scarify,  sharp ;  short,  shirt, 
skirt  (three  forms  of  the  same  word); 
shred,  potsherd  (the  same  word,  with 
the  r  transposed) ;  sheriff  (  =  scir-gerefa, 
reeve  of  the  shire) ;  scrip,  scrap,  scrape. 
The  soft  form  sh  belongs  to  the  southern 
English  dialects :  the  hard  forms,  sc  and 
sk,  to  the  northern. 

Scuf-an,  to  push— shove,  shovel,  shuffle  ; 
scuffle ;  sheaf ;  scoop. 

Sett-an,  to  set,  or  make  sit — set,  seat ; 
settle,  saddle  ;  Somerset,  Dorset. 

Slag-an,  to  strike— slay  (the  hard  g  has 
been  refined  into  a  y),  slaughter ;  slog, 
sledge  (in  sledge-hammer). 

Slip-an,  to  slip— slop ;  slipper,  sleeve  (into 
which  the  arm  is  slipped). 

Snic-an,  to  crawl  —  sneak,  snake,  snail 
(here  the  hard  guttural  has  been  refined 
away). 

Spell,  a  story  or  message— spell  (=  to  give 


1  The  w  in  whole  is  intrusive  and  non-organic,  as  in  whoop,  and  in  wun  (=one,  so 
pronounced,  but  not  so  written).  Before  the  year  1500  whole  was  always  written  hole  ; 
and  in  this  form  it  is  seen  to  be  a  doublet  of  hale.     Holy  is  simply  hole+y. 


WORD-BRANCHING. 


147 


an  account  of  or  tell  the  story  of  the 
letters  in  a  word) ;  spell-bound  ;  gospel 
(=  God's  spell). 

Stearc,  stiff— stark ;  strong  (a  nasalised 
form  of  stark) ;  string  (that  which  is 
strongly  twisted) ;  strength  ;  strangle. 

Stede,  a  place — stead,  instead,  homestead, 
farm-steading;  steady;  steadfast;  be- 
stead: Hampstead. 

Stic'i-an,  to  stick— stick,  stitch  (two  forms 
of  the  same  word),  stake,  stock,  stock- 
ade ;  stock-dove ;  stock-fish  (fish  dried 
to  keep  in  stock) ;  stock-still. 

Stig-an,  to  climb — stair;  stile;  stirrup 
(=  stigrdp,  or  rope  for  rising  into  the 
saddle) ;  sty  (in  pig-sty). 

Stow,  a  place— bestow ;  stowage,  stowa- 
way ;  C%epstow  ( =  the  place  where  a 
cheap  or  market  is  held);  Bristol  (the 
I  and  w  being  interchangeable). 

Styr-an,  to  direct — steer,  stern ;  steerage. 

Sundri-an,  to  part  —  sunder;  sundry; 
asunder.     (Compare  sever  and  several.) 

Sweri-an,  to  declare— swear,  answer  (  = 
andswerian,  to  declare  in  opposition  or 
in  reply  to),  forswear. 

Taec-an,  to  show— teach,  teacher;  token 
(that  which  is  shown);  taught  (when 
the  hard  c  reappears  as  a  gh). 

Tell-an,  to  count  or  recount— tell ;  tale,1 
talk ;  toll ;  teller. 

Teoh-an  (or  teon),  to  draw  — tow,  tug 
(two  forms  of  the  same  word,  the  hard 
guttural  having  been  preserved  in  the 
one) ;  wanton  (=  without  right  upbring- 
ing). Compare  wanhope  =  despair  ; 
wantrust  =  mistrust. 

Thaec,  a  roof— thatch ;  deck. 


Tred-an,  to  walk— tread,  treadle;  trade; 
tradesman,  trade-wind. 

Truwa,  good  faith—  true,  truth,  troth,  be- 
troth. 

TwA,  two— two,  twin,  twain ;  twelve  (= 
two+lif, "  remainingover  ");  twenty ;  be- 
tween ;  twig  ;  twiddle ;  twine,  twist,  etc. 

Waci-an,  to  be  on  one's  guard— wake, 
watch  (two  forms  of  the  same  word); 
awake,  wakeful. 

Wad-an,  to  go — wade  ;  waddle  ;  Watling 
Street  (the  road  of  the  pilgrims).  The 
Eng.  word  wade  is  of  the  same  origin  as 
the  Lat.  vade  in  evade,  invade,  etc. 

Wana,  a  deficiency— wan,  wane;  want, 
wanton  ;  wanhope  (the  old  word  for 
despair). 

Wef-an,  to  weave— weave,  weaver;  web, 
webster  (a  woman-weaver)  ;  cobweb  ; 
woof,  weft  (v,  b,  and  f,  being  all  labials). 

War,  hostility  (the  French  guerre  substi- 
tutes gu  for  w)— warrior,  warfare. 

Weard,  a  guarding— wary,  aware;  ward, 
guard  (a  Norman-French  doublet  of 
ward);  warden,  guardian  (the  same). 

Wit-an,  to  know— wit,  to  wit ;  wise,  wis- 
dom ;  wistful ;  witness  ;  Witena-gemote 
(=  the  Meeting  of  the  Wise) ;  y-wis  (the 
past  participle,  wrongly  written  I  wis). 

Wraest-an,  to  wrest  —  wrest,  wrestle ; 
wrist. 

Wring-an,  to  force— wring,  wrong  (that 
which  is  wrung  out  of  the  right  course) 

Wyrc-an,  to  work — work,  wright  (the  r 
shifts  its  place). 

Wyrt,  a  herb  or  plant — wort ;  orchard  (= 
wort -yard);  wart  (on  the  skin);  St 
John's  wort,  etc. 


LATIN   ROOTS. 

Those  words  with  (F.)  after  them  have  not  come  to  us  directly  from  Latin ; 
but,  indirectly,  through  French. 


Acer  (acris),  sharp;  acrid,  acrimony,  vine- 
gar (sharp  wine,  F.),  eager  (F.) 

JEdeB,  a  building ;  edifice,  edify. 

JEqaxm,  equal;  equality,  equator,  equi- 
nox, equity,  adequate,  iniquity. 

Ager,  a  field ;  agriculture,  agrarian,  pere- 
grinate. 


Ago  (actum),  I  do,  act;  act,  agent,  agile, 

agitate,  cogent. 
Alo,  I  nourish  ;  aliment,  alimony. 
Alter,  the  other  of  two ;  alternation,  sub* 

altera,  altercation. 
Altus,  high;   altitude,  exalt,  alto   (It.), 

altar. 


1  "  And  every  shepherd  tells  his  tale  (=  counts  his  sheep) 
Under  the  hawthorn  in  the  dale."— Milton  :  V Allegro. 


148 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


Ambulo,  I  walk;  amble  (F.),  perambulate . 

Amo,  I  love;  amity,  amorous,  amiable 
(F.),  inimical. 

Angulus,  a  corner  ;  angle,  triangle,  quad- 
rangle. 

Anima,  life;  animal,  animate,  animation. 

Animus,  mind ;  magnanimity,  equan- 
imity, unanimous,  animadvert. 

Annus,  a  year ;  annual,  perennial,  bien- 
nial, anniversary. 

Aperio  (apertum),  I  open  ;  aperient,  aper- 
ture, April  (the  opening  month). 

Appello,  I  call;  appellation,  appellant; 
peal  (of  bells),  appeal  (F.) 

Aqua,  water ;  aqueduct,  aquatic,  aqueous, 
aquarium. 

Arcus,  a  bow;  arch,  arc,  arcade  (Fr.  It.) 

Ardeo,  I  burn;  ardent,  ardour,  arson 
(F.) 

Ars  (artis),  art;  artist,  artisan  (F.),  arti- 
fice, inert. 

Audio,  I  hear;  audience,  audible,  audi- 
tory. 

Augeo  (auctum),  I  increase;  augment, 
author,  auctioneer. 

Barba,  a  beard ;  barb,  barber,  barbel  (all 
through  F.) 

Bellum,  war;  rebel,  rebellious,  bellig- 
erent, bellicose. 

Bis,  twice;  biscuit,  bissextile,  bisect, 
bicycle. 

Brevis,  short;  brevity,  abbreviate,  brief 
(F.),  breviary,  abridge  (F.) 

Cado  (casum).  1  fall ;  casual,  accident. 

Caedo  (csesum),  I  cut,  kill;  precise,  exci- 
sion, decide. 

Candeo,  I  shine;  candidus,  white;  can- 
did, candidate,  candle. 

Cano  (can turn),  I  sing;  cant,  canticle, 
chant  (F.),  incantation. 

Capio  (captum),  I  take;  captive,  accept, 
reception  (F.),  capacity. 

Caput,  the  head;  capital,  captain,  cape, 
chapter  (F.) 

Caro  (carnis),  flesh ;  carnal,  carnival,  car- 
nivorous, carnation. 

Causa,  a  cause;  causative,  accuse  (F.), 
excuse  (F.) 

Cavus,  hollow;  cavity,  cave,  excavate, 
concave. 

Cedo  (cessum),  I  go,  yield;  proceed  (F.), 
ancestor  (F.),  secede. 

Centrum  (Gr.  Ktvrpov  =  a  point),  centre ; 
centralise,  centripetal,  eccentric. 

Centum,  a  hundred ;  century,  centurion, 


Cerno  (cretum),  to  distinguish;  discern, 
discretion,  discreet. 

Cingo  (cinctum),  I  gird;  cincture,  suc- 
cinct, precinct. 

Cito,  I  call  or  summon;  citation,  recite 
(F.),  excite  (F.),  incite  (F.) 

Civis,  a  citizen;  city  (F.),  civic,  civil,  civ- 
ilise, civilian. 

Clamo,  I  shout;  claim  (F.),  clamour,  re- 
claim (F.),  proclamation. 

Clarus,  dear;  clarify,  declare ;  clarion, 
claret  (F.) 

Claudo  (clausum),  I  shut ;  clause,  close 
(F.),  exclude,  seclusion. 

Clino,  I  bend;  incline,  decline,  recline. 

Colo  (cultum),  I  till;  cultivate,  arboricul- 
ture, agriculture. 

Cor  (cordis),  the  heart ;  courage  (F.),  cor- 
dial (F.),  discord,  record. 

Corona,  a  crown;  coronet,  coroner,  coro- 
nation, corolla. 

Corpus,  the  body;  corps,  corpse  (F.),  cor- 
pulent, corporation. 

Credo,  I  believe;  credibility,  credence  (F.), 
miscreant  (F.),  creed,  creditor. 

Creo,  I  create;  create,  creation,  recrea- 
tion, creature. 

Cresco,  7  grow;  increase,  decrease  (F.); 
increment. 

Crux  (crucis),  a  cross;  crucial,  crucifix, 
cruise  (F.) 

Cubo,  I  lie  down;  cubit,  incubate,  recum 
bent. 

Culpa,  a  fault;  culprit,  culpable,  excul 
pate,  inculpate. 

Cora,  cure;  curate,  curator,  accurate, 
secure,  incurable. 

Curro  (cursum),  I  run;  current,  recur 
excursion,  cursory,  course  (F.),  occur. 

Decern,  ten;  decimal,  December,  deci 
mate. 

Dens  (dentis),  a  tooth;  dentist,  dental, 
indent,  trident. 

Deus,  God;  deity,  deify,  divine. 

Dico  (dictum),  I  say  ;  verdict,  dictionary, 
dictation,  indictment,  ditto  (Ital.) 

Dies,  a  day  ;  diary,  diurnal,  meridian. 

Dignus,  worthy ;  dignity,  dignify,  in- 
dignant, deign  (F.) 

Do  (datum),  I  give;  date,  data,  dative, 
dation  (a  law  term). 

Doceo  (doctum),  2"  teach;  docile,  doctor, 
doctrine. 

Dominus,  a  lord;  dominion,  dominant; 
domineer,  dame,  damsel,  madame 
(allF.) 


WORD-BRANCHING. 


149 


Domus,  a  house;  domestic,  domicile. 

Dormio,  J  sleep;  dormitory;  dormant, 
dormer-window  (both  F.) 

Duco  (dictum),  J  lead;  induct,  educa- 
tion, duke(F.),  produce. 

Duo,  two;  dual,  duel,  duplex,  double (F.) 

Emo  (emptum),  J  buy  ;  exemption,  re- 
deem (F.) 

Eo  (itum),  I  go;  exit,  transit,  circuit(F.), 
ambition,  perish  (F.) 

Erro,  J  wander  ;  err,  error,  aberration. 

Facies,  a/oce;  facial,  faeet(F.),  superficial. 

Facio,  (factum),  I  make;  manufacture, 
factor,  faction,  fashion  (F.),  feature 
(F.),  fact,  feat  (F.) 

Fero  (latum),  I  carry  ;  infer,  suffer,  refer- 
ence, difference ;  relative,  correlative. 

Fido,  ltrust;  confide,  diffident,  infidel (F.) 

Filum,  a  thread;  file,  defile,  profile,  fillet 
(F.) 

Finis,  the  end;  finish  (F.),  finite,  Infinite, 
infinitive. 

Firmus,  firm;  infirm,  affirm,  confirm. 

Flecto(flexum),  Ibend;  inflect,  inflection, 
flexible. 

Flos  (floris),  a  flower;  floral,  flora,  flori- 
culture. 

Fluo  (fluxum),  I  flow  ;  fluent,  fluid,  flux, 
affluent. 

Folium,  a  leaf;  foliage,  foil  (F.),  portfolio, 
trefoil  (F.) 

Forma,  a  form ;  form,  formal,  reform, 
conformity. 

FortiB,  strong;  fortify,  fortitude,  fortress, 
force  (F.) 

Frango  (fractus),  I  break;  fragile  (F.), 
fragmentary,  infraction,  infringe. 

Frater,  a  brother;  fraternal,  fratricide, 
friar  (F.) 

Frons,  (frontis),  the  forehead;  front, 
frontal,  frontier,  frontispiece. 

Fugiojfiee;  fugitive,  refugee  (F.),  subter- 
fuge. 

Fundo  (fusum),  I  pour;  fount,  foundry 
(F.);  fusible,  diffusion. 

Fundus,  thebottom;  foundation,  profound, 
founder  (all  F.) 

(Jena  (gentis),  a  race,  people;  gentile, 
genteel,  gentle  (all  F.)  ;  congenial. 

Goro  (gestum),  I  bear,  carry;  gesture, 
suggestion,  indigestion. 

Gradus,  a  step;  gradior  (gressus),  J  go; 
grade, degrade,  graduate;  progress  (F.), 
gradient. 

Gratia,  favour,  pi.  thanks;  gratitude,  in- 
gratiate, gratis 


Gravis,  heavy  ;  grave,  gravity,  grief  (F.), 
aggrieve  (F.) 

Habeo(habitum),  J  have;  habit,  able(F.), 
exhibit,  prohibition. 

Hoereo  (hsesum),  J  stick  ;  adhere,  adher- 
ent, cohesion. 

Homo,  a  man ;  homicide,  homage  (F.), 
human,  humnnc. 

Ignis,  fire;  ignite,  igneous. 

Impero,  Icommand;  imperative,  imperial ; 
empire,  emperor  (both  F.) 

Initium,  a  beginning;  initate,  initial. 

Insula,  an  island;  isle, insular,  peninsula. 

Jacio  (jectum),  I  throw;  adjective,  pro- 
ject, injection,  object,  subject. 

Judex  (judicis),  a  judge;  judgment  (F.), 
judicial. 

Jungo(junctum),  I  join;  junction,  junc- 
ture, conjoin  (F.),  adjunct. 

Jus  (juris),  right;  justice  (F.),  jury  (F.), 
injury. 

Labor  (lapsus),  I  glide;  lapse,  relapse, 
collapse. 

Lapis  (lapidis),  a  stone;  lapidary,  dilapi- 
dated. 

Laus(laudis),  praise;  laud,  laudable,  laud- 
ation, allow  (F.) 

Lego  (lectum),  I  gather,  read ;  collect, 
elector,  select;  lecture  (F.),  legend, 
legible. 

Lego  (legatum),  I  send ;  legate,  delegate, 
legacy. 

Levis,  light;  levity,  alleviate;  relief, 
lever,  leaven  (all  F.) 

Lex  (legis),  a  law;  legal,  legislate,  legiti- 
mate. 

Liber,  free;  liberal,  liberty,  libertine. 

Liber,  a  book;  library,  librarian. 

Ligo,  I  bind;  ligament,  religion,  oblige 
(F.),  liable  (F.) 

Linquo(lictum),  I  leave;  relinquish,  relict, 
relics  (F.) 

Litera,  a  letter;  literal,  literary,  litera- 
ture. 

Locus,  a  place;  local,  allocate,  dislocate, 
locomotive. 

Loquor  (locutus),  I  speak;  loquacious, 
elocution,  co'.loquy. 

Ludo(lusum),  I  play  ;  elude,  illusion,  in- 
terlude, ludicrous. 

Lumen,  light;  illuminate,  luminous,  lum- 
inary. 

Luna,  the  moon  ;  lunar,  sublunary,  lun 
acy. 

Luo  (lutum),  I  wash;  ablution,  dilute, 
antediluvian. 


150 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


Lux  (lucis),  light;  lucid,  elucidate,  pel- 
lucid. 

Magnus,  great ;  magnitude,  magnify,  mag- 
nificent, magnanimous. 

Malus,  bad;  malady,  malice  (F.);  malaria, 
malevolent. 

Maneo  (mansum),  I  remain  ;  manse,  man- 
sion, permanent. 

Manus,  the  hand;  manuscript,  manual, 
manufacture,  amanuensis. 

Mare,  the  sea ;  marine,  mariner,  maritime. 

Mater,  a  mother;  maternal,  matricide, 
matron,  matriculate. 

Maturus,  ripe;  mature,  immature,  pre- 
mature. 

Medius,  the  middle;  medium,  mediate, 
immediate,  Mediterranean. 

Memini,  I  remember;  mernor,  mindful; 
memory,  memoir  (F.),  commemorate, 
immemorial. 

Mens  (mentis),  the  mind;  mental,  de- 
mented. 

Mergo  (mersum),  I  dip;  emerge,  immer- 
sion, emergency. 

Merx  (mercis),  goods;  merchandise  (F.), 
commerce  (F.),  merchant  (F.) 

Miles  (milites),  a  soldier;  military,  mili- 
tant, militia. 

Miror,  2"  admire;  admirable,  miracle, 
mirage  (F.) 

Mitto  (missum),  I  send ;  commit,  missile, 
mission,  remittance. 

Modus,  a  measure;  mood  (F.),  modify, 
accommodate. 

Moneo  (monitum),  I  advise;  monition, 
monitor,  monument. 

Mons  (montis),  a  mountain;  amount  (F.), 
dismount  (F.),  promontory,  ultramon- 
tane. 

Mors  (mortis),  death ;  mortify,  mortal, 
immortality. 

Moveo  (motum),  I  move ;  mobile  (F ), 
promote,  motor,  motive. 

Multus,  many ;  multitude,  multiple,  mul- 
tiply. 

Munus  (muneris),  a  gift;  munificent,  re- 
munerate, municipal. 

Muto,  I  change  ;  mutable,  transmute. 

Nascor  (natus),  to  be  born;  nascent,  natal, 
nativity,  nature. 

Navis,  a  ship;  navy,  naval,  navigate, 
nave  (F.) 

Necto  (nexum),  I  tie;  connect,  connec- 
tion, annex. 

Nego  (negatum),  I  deny;  negative,  nega- 
tion, renegade  (Sp.) 


Noceo,  /  injure ;  noxious,  innocuous,  in- 
nocent. 

Nomen,  a  name;  nominal,  cognomen,  no- 
mination. 

Novus,  new;  novel,  renovate,  novelty, 
innovation. 

Nox  (noctis),  night;  nocturnal,  equinoc- 
tial, equinox. 

Nudus,  naked  ;  nude,  denude,  denudation. 

Numerus,  a  number;  numeration,  in- 
numerable, enumerate. 

Octo,  eight;  octave,  octagon,  October. 

Omnis,  all;  omnibus,  omnipotent,  om- 
niscient. 

Opus  (operis),  work;  operation,  co-oper- 
ate, opera. 

Ordo  (ordinis),  order;  ordinal,  ordinary, 
ordinance. 

Oro,  I  pray ;  oration,  orator,  peroration. 

Pando  (pansum  or  passum),  I  spread  ;  ex- 
pand, expanse;  compass.  pace(F.) 

Pareo,  I  appear;  appearance,  apparent, 
apparition. 

Paro  (para turn),  I  prepare;  repair  (F.), 
apparatus,  comparison  (F.) 

Pars  (partis),  a  part ;  particle,  partition ; 
partner,  parcel  (F.) 

Pasco  (pastum),  J  feed;  pastor,  repae^ 
pasture. 

Pater,  a  father;  paternal,  parricide  (F.) 
patrimony. 

Patior  (passus),  I  suffer  ;  impatient,  pas- 
sive, passion. 

Pax  (pacis),  peace  ;  pacify,  pacific. 

Pello  (pulsum),  I  drive;  repel,  expel,  ex- 
pulsion, impulsive. 

Pendeo  (pensum),  1  hang;  pendant,  de- 
pend, suspend,  suspense,  appendix. 

Pes  (pedis),  the  foot ;  pedal,  impede,  ped- 
estrian, biped. 

Peto  (petitum),  I  seek;  petition,  petulant, 
compete,  appetite. 

Planus,  level ;  plan,  plane,  plain,  ex- 
plain (all  F.) 

Plaudo  (plausum),  I  clap  the  hands;  ap- 
plaud, plausible,  explode  (F.) 

Pleo  (pletum),  I  fill ;  complete,  comple- 
tion, supplement. 

Plico  (plicatum),  I  fold;  complicated,  pli- 
able (F.),  reply  (F.),  dismay  (F.),  simple. 

Poena,  punishment ;  penal,  repent,  pen- 
alty, penitent,  penance  (all  F.) 

Pono  (positum),  I  place;  deponent,  posi- 
tion, imposition,  post  (F.) 

Pons  (pontis),  a  bridge;  pontiff,  transpon- 
tine. 


WORD-BRANCHING. 


151 


Porto,  I  carry:  export,  deportment,  re- 
port, portmanteau  (F.) 

Possum,  I  am  able ;  potens,  able ;  pos- 
sible, potency  (F.),  impotent. 

Prehendo  (prehensum),  (Fr.  prendre, 
pris),  I  take;  prehensile,  comprehend  ; 
apprise,  comprise,  apprentice  (F.) 

Primus,  first;  primary,  primitive,  prim- 
rose (F.) 

Probo,  I  try,  prove  ;  probe,  probable,  im- 
prove (F.),  approve  (F.) 

Propriua,  one's  own;  proper,  property 
(F.) ;  appropriation. 

Pungo(punctum),  I  prick;  pungent,  ex- 
punge ;  punctual,  poignant  (F.) 

Puto  (putatum),  J  cut,  think;  compute, 
count  (F.),  amputate,  reputation. 

Quatuor,/owr;  quadra,  a  square  ;  quart, 
quarter,  quarry  (F.)  ;  quadrant. 

Radix,  a  root;  radical,  eradicate,  radish 
(F.) 

Rapio  (raptum),  I  seize;  rapture,  rapine 
(F.),  surreptitious. 

Rego  (rectum),  I  rule  ;  rex  (regis),  o  king  ; 
regal,  regulate,  regent,  rector,  interreg- 
num, royal  (F.),  realm  (N.-Fr.  real). 

Rideo  (risum),  I  laugh;  ridicule  (F.),  de- 
ride, ridiculous  (F.),  risible. 

Rogo  (rogatum),  I  ask;  rogation,  interro- 
gation, derogatory. 

Rota,  a  wheel;  rotary,  rotation,  rotund 
— contracted  into  round  (F.) 

Rumpo  (ruptum),  I  break;  rupture,  erup- 
tion, disruption. 

Sacer,  sacred;  sacrament,  sacrilege  (F.), 
sacerdotal,  sexton  (contracted  from 
sacristan). 

Salio (saltum),  I  leap;  sally,  assail,  sal- 
mon (all  F.);  salient. 

Sanctus,  holy  ;  sanctuary,  sanctify,  saint 
(F.) 

Scando  (scansum),  I  climb  ;  acala,  a  lad- 
der;  scan,  scale,  descent,  ascension. 

Scio,  I  know;  science,  scientific,  con. 
science,  omniscient. 

Scribo  (scriptum),  I  write;  scribe,  scrib- 
ble, scripture,  inscription,  postscript. 

Seco  (sectum),  /  cut ;  bisect,  dissect,  in- 
sect, section. 

Sedeo  (sessum),  I  set,  sit;  sediment,  sub- 
side, see  (F.),  residence  (F.),  insidious. 

Sentio,  I  feel  ;  sense,  sensual,  scent  (F.); 
sentiment. 

Septem,  seven;  septennial,  September. 

Sequor  (secutus),  I  follow;  sequence  (F.), 
sequel,  consequent,  prosecute. 


Servio,  I  serve ;  service  (F.),  servant,  ser- 
geant (F.) 

Signum,  a  sign;  signify,  significant,  des- 
ignation, ensign  (F.) 

Similis,  like;  similar,  similitude,  re- 
semble (F.) 

Socius,  a  companion;  social,  society,  as- 
sociation. 

Solus,  alone;  solitude,  sole,  solo  (It.) 

Solvo  (solutum),  I  loose;  dissolve,  resolve, 
absolute,  resolution, 

Specio  (spectum),  /  see  ;  aspect,  spectator, 
specimen,  spectre  (F.) 

Spero,  I  hope;  despair  (F.),  desperate. 

Spiro,  I  breathe;  inspire,  aspire,  con- 
spiracy (all  F.) 

Statuo,  I  set  up  ;  »to  (statum),  I  stand  ; 
statue,  statute,  stature  (F.);  insti- 
tute. 

Stringo  (strictum),  I  bind;  stringent, 
constrain  (F.),  district. 

Struo (structum),  Ibuild;  structure,  con- 
struct, obstruct,  construe. 

Sumo  (sumptum),  I  take;  assume,  con- 
sume, assumption. 

Tango  (tactum),  I  touch;  tangible,  tan- 
gent, contact,  contagious. 

Tego  (tectum),  I  cover;  integument,  de- 
tect, tile  (F.) ;  from  Lat.  tegula. 

Tempus  (temporis),  time;  temporal,  con- 
temporary, extempore. 

Tendo  (tensum),  J  stretch;  contend,  ex. 
tend,  attend,  tense  (F.),  tendon. 

Teneo  (tentum),  I  hold;  tenant,  tenet, 
tendril,  detain  (F.),  retentive. 

Terminus,  an  end,  boundary  ;  terminate, 
term  (F.)  interminable. 

Terra,  the  earth;  subterranean,  terres- 
trial, Mediterranean. 

Terreo,  I  frighten;  terror,  terrify,  deter. 

Texo  (textum),  I  weave;  textile,  text, 
texture,  context. 

Timeo,  I  fear  ;  timid,  timorous. 

Torqneo  (tortum),  /  twist;  torture,  tor- 
ment, contortion,  retort. 

Traho (tractum),  /  draw;  traction,  sub- 
tract, contraction,  tract. 

Tres  (tria),  three;  trefoil  (F.),  trident, 
trinity. 

Tribuo,  I  give;  tribute,  tributary,  con- 
tribution. 

Tumeo,  I  swell;  tumulus,  a  swelling  or 
mound;  tumult,  tumour,  tomb(F.) 

TJnus,  one;  union,  unit,  unite,  uniform, 
unique  (F.) 

"Orbs,  a  city;  suburb,  urbanity,  urbane. 


152 


GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


Valeo,  i"  am  strong;  valour,  valiant  (F.), 
prevail  (F.) 

Vanus,  empty ;  vanity,  vanish,  vain 
(aU  F.) 

Veno  (vectum),  I  convey ;  vehicle,  con- 
veyance (F.),  convex. 

Venio,  I  come;  advent;  venture,  con- 
vene, covenant (F.) 

Verbum,  a  word;  verb,  adverb,  verbose, 
verbal,  proverb. 

Verto  (versum),  /  turn;  convert,  revert, 
divert,  versatile. 

Verus,  true;  verity,  aver,  verdict  (all  F.) 

Via,  a  way;  deviate,  previous,  trivial. 

Video  (visum),  I  see;  vision,  provide,  visit 
(F.),  revise  (F.) 


Vinco  (victum),  I  conquer;  victor,  con- 
vict, victory,  convince. 

Vitium,  a  fault ;  vice  (F.),  vitiate,  vicious 
(F.) 

Vivo  (victum),  I  live ;  vivid ;  revive, 
viands,  survive  (F.) 

Voco  (vocatum),  /  call;  vocal,  vowel  (F.), 
vocation,  revoke  (F.),  vociferate. 

Volo,  I  wish  ;  volition,  voluntary,  benev- 
olence. 

Volvo  (volutum),  /  roll ;  revolve,  involve, 
evolution,  volume. 

Voveo  (votum),  I  vow  ;  vote,  devote,  vow 
(F.) 

Vulgus,  the  common  people  ;  vulgar,  di- 
vulge, vulgate. 


GREEK  ROOTS. 


Agon,  a  contest;  agony,  antagonist. 

Alios,  another  ;  allopathy,  allegory. 

Angelos,  a  messenger ;  angel,  evangelist. 

AnthrSpos,  a  man ;  misanthrope,  philan- 
thropy. 

Archo,  /  begin,  rule;  monarch,  archaic, 
archbishop,  archdeacon. 

Arithmos,  number;  arithmetic. 

Aster  or  astron,  a  star ;  astronomy,  astro- 
logy, asteroid,  disaster. 

Atmos,  vapour;  atmosphere 

Autos,  self;  autocrat,  autograph. 

Ballo,  I  throw ;  symbol,  parable. 

Bapto,  /  dip ;  baptise,  baptist. 

Baros,  weight;  barometer,  baritone. 

Biblos,  a  book  ;  Bible,  bibliomania. 

Bios,  life;  biography,  biology,  amphi- 
bious. 

Cheir,  the  hand;  surgeon  [older  form, 
chirurgeon]. 

Chole,  bile;  melancholy,  choler. 

Chrio,  I  anoint ;  Christ,  chrism. 

Chronos,  time;  chronology,  chronic,  chron- 
icle, chronometer. 

Daktulos,  a  finger;  dactyl,  pterodactyl, 
d&te  (the  fruit). 

Deka,  ten ;  decagon,  decalogue,  decade. 

Demos,  the  people;  democrat,  endemic, 
epidemic. 

Dokeo,  I  think;  doxa  and  dogma,  an 
opinion;  doxology,  orthodox,  hetero- 
dox, dogma,  dogmatic. 

Drao,  /  do  ;  drama,  dramatic. 

Dunamis,  power ;  dynamics,  dynamite. 

Eidos,  form;  kaleidoscope,  spheroid. 


Eikon,  an  image;  iconoclast. 

Electron,  amber ;  electricity,  electrotype. 

Ergon,  a  work;  surgecn  (= chirurgeon), 
energy,  metallurgy. 

Eu,  well ;  eucharist,  euphony,  evangelist. 

Gamos,  marriage;  bigamy,  monogamist, 
misogamy. 

Ge,  the  earth;  geography,  geometry,  geo- 
logy. 

Genos,  race,  kind;  genesis,  genealogy, 
hydrogen,  oxygen. 

Grapho,  I  write  ;  gramma,  a  letter ;  gra- 
phic, grammar,  telegraph,  biography, 
diagram. 

Haima,  blood;  haemorrhage,  haemorrhoids 

Haireo,  I  choose;  heresy,  heretic. 

Hecaton,  a  hundred;  hecatomb,  hecto- 
metre. 

Helios,  the  sun ;  heliograph,  heliotype. 

Hemi,  half;  hemisphere. 

Hieros,  sacred  ;  hierarchy,  hieroglyphic. 

Hippos,  a  horse;  hippopotamus,  hippo- 
drome. 

Hodos,  a  way;  method,  period,  exodus. 

HSmos,  the  same ;  homologue,  homo- 
geneous. 

Hudor,  water;  hydraulic,  hydrophobia, 
hydrogen. 

Ichthus,  a  fish;  ichthyology. 

Idios,  one's  own;  idiom,  idiot,  idiosyn- 
crasy. 

Isos,  equal;  isochronous,  isobaric  (of  equal 
weight),  isosceles. 

Kalos,  beautiful;  caligraphy,  kaleidoscope. 

Kephale,  the  head  ;  hydrocephalus. 


WORD-BRANCHING. 


153 


Klino,  I  bend  ;  clinical,  climax,  climate. 

Koamos,  order;  cosmogony,  cosmography, 
cosmetic. 

Krino,  I  judge ;  critic,  criterion,  hypo- 
crite. 

Kuklos,  a  circle  ;  cycle,  cycloid,  cyclone. 

Knon  (kun-os),  a  dog;  cynic,  cynicism. 

Lego,  I  say,  choose  ;  eclectic,  lexicon. 

Lithos,  a  stone  .  lithograph,  aerolite. 

Logos,  a  word,  speech;  logic,  dialogue, 
geology. 

Luo,  I  loosen  ;  dialysis,  analysis,  paralysis, 

Meter,  a  mother;  metropolis,  metropo- 
litan. 

Metron,  a  measure:  metre,  metronome, 
diameter,  thermometer,  barometer. 

Mdnos,  alone  ;  monastery,  monogram,  mo- 
nosyllable, monopoly,  monarch. 

Morphe,  shape  ;  amorphous,  dimorphous, 
metamorphic. 

Naus,  a  ship  ;  nautical,  nausea. 

Nekros,  a  dead  body;  necropolis,  necro- 
mancy. 

N6mos,  a  law;  autonomous,  astronomy, 
Deuteronomy. 

Oikos,  a  house  ;  economy,  economical. 

Ondma,  a  name,;  anonymous,  synony- 
mous, patronymic. 

Optomai,  I  see  ;  optics,  synoptical. 

Orthos,  right :  orthodoxy,  orthography. 

Pais  (paid-os),  a  boy;  pedagogue  [lit  o 
boy-leader]. 

Pan,  all :  pantheist,  panoply,  pantomime. 

Pathos,  feeling  ;  pathetic,  sympathy. 

Pente,  five ;  pentagon,  pentateuch,  Pente- 
cost. 

Petra,  a  rock  ;  petrify,  petrel,  Peter. 

Phainomai,  I  appear  ;  phenomenon,  phan- 
tasy, phantom,  fantastic,  fancy. 

Phero,  J  bear ;  periphery,  phosphorus 
[=the  light-bearer]. 


Phileo,  I  love;  philosophy,  Philadelphia, 
philharmonic 

Phone,  a  sound;  phonic,  phonetic,  eu- 
phony, symphony. 

Phoa  (phot-os),  light ;  photometer,  photo- 
graph. 

Phusis,  nature;  physics,  physiology,  phy- 
sician. 

Poieo,  I  make;  poet,  poetic,  pharmacopoeia. 

Polis,  a  city;  Constantinople,  metro- 
polis. 

Polua,  many;  polytheist,  Polynesia,  poly- 
anthus, polygamy. 

Pous  (pod-os),  afoot ;  antipodes,  tripod. 

Protos,  first ;  prototype,  protoplasm. 

Pur,  fire;  pyrotechnic,  pyre. 

Rheo,  I  flow  ;  catarrh,  rheumatic. 

Skopeo,  I  set;  microscope,  telescope, 
spectroscope,  bishop  [from  episkopos, 
an  overseer}. 

Sophia,  wisdom  ;  sophist,  philosophy. 

Stello,  I  send ;  apostle,  epistle. 

Stratos,  an  army ;  strategy,  strategic. 

Strepho,  I  turn  ;  catastrophe,  apostrophe 

Techne,  an  art ;  technicaL 

TelS,  distant;  telegraph,  telescope,  tele 
phone,  telegram. 

Temno,  I  cut ;  anatomy,  lithotomy. 

Tetra,  four  ;  tetrachord,  tetrarch. 

Theaomai,  I  see;  theatre,  theory. 

Theos,  a  god  ;  theist,  enthusiast,  theology. 

Therme,  heat ;  thermal,  thermometer 
isotherm. 

Tithemi,  I  place  ;  thesis,  a  placing  ;  syn- 
thesis, hypothesis. 

Treis,  three;  triangle,  trigonometry,  tri- 
pod, tridactyl,  trichord. 

Trepo,  I  turn  ;  trophy,  tropic,  heliotrope. 

Tupos,  the  impress  of  a  seal ;  type,  stereo- 
type. 

Zoon,  an  animal ;  zoology,  zodiac 


154 


WORDS   DERIVED   FROM   THE   NAMES   OP 
PERSONS,    ETC. 

Argosy,  from  Ragusa,  a  port  in  Dalmatia,  on  the  E.  Coast  of  the  Gulf 

of  Venice.     Properly  "Ragusy"  (a  form  which  was  in  use  in  1577). 

Used  by  Shakespeare,  in  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  i.  1.  9,  in  the 

sense  of  trading  vessel. 
Assassins,  the  name  of  a  fanatical  Syrian  sect  of  the  thirteenth  century, 

who,  under  the  influence  of  a  drug  prepared  from  hemp,  called  has- 

chisch,   rushed  into  battle   against  the   Crusaders,  and   slaughtered 

many  of  their  foes. 
Atlas,  one  of  the  Titans,  or  earlier  gods,  who  was  so  strong  that  he  was  said 

to  carry  the  world  on  his  shoulders. 
August,  from  Augustus  Caesar,  the  second  Emperor  of  Rome. 
Bacchanalian,  from  the  festival  called  Bacchanalia;  from  Bacchus,  the 

Roman  god  of  wine. 
Boycott  (to),  from  Captain  Boycott,  a  land-agent  in  the  west  of  Ireland, 

who  was  *  sent  to  Coventry  "  by  all  his  neighbours ;  they  would  neither 

speak  to  him,  buy  from  him,  or  sell  to  him — by  order  of  the  "  Irish 

Land  League." 
Chimera,  a  totally  imaginary  and  grotesque  image  or  conception  ;  from 

Chimsera,  a  monster  in  the  Greek  mythology,  half  goat,  half  lion. 
Cicerone,  a  guide  ;  from  Cicero,  the  greatest  Roman  orator  and  writer  of 

speeches  that  ever  lived.    (Guides  who  described  antiquities,  etc.,  were 

supposed  to  be  as  "fluent  as  Cicero.") 
Cravat,  from  the  Croats  or  Crabati  of   Croatia,  who  supplied  an  army 

corps  to  Austria,  in  which  long  and  large  neck-ties  were  worn  by  the 

soldiers. 
Dahlia,  from  Dahl,  a  Swedish  botanist,  who  introduced  the  flower  into 

Europe. 
Draconian  (code),  a  very  severe  code  ;  from  Draco,  a  severe  Athenian  legis- 
lator, who  decreed  death  for  every  crime,  great  or  small.     His  laws 

were  said  to  have  been  "  written  in  blood. " 
Dunce,  from  Duns  Scotus,  a  great  philosopher  (or  "  schoolman  ")  of  the 

Middle   Ages,  who   died   1308.      The  followers   of   Thomas  Aquinas 

called  "  Thomists,"  looked  down  upon  those  of  Duns,  who  were  called 

"  Sootists,"  and  in  course  of  time  "  Dunces." 


WORDS  DERIVED   FROM   THE   NAMES   OF   PERSONS.      155 

Epicure,  a  person  fond  of  good  living  ;  from  Epicurus,  a  great  Greek  phil- 
osopher. His  enemies  misrepresented  him  as  teaching  that  pleasure 
was  the  highest  or  chief  est  good. 

Euphuistic  (style),  a  style  of  high-flown  refinement ;  from  Euphues  (the 
well-born  man),  the  title  of  a  book  written  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
by  John  Lyly,  which  introduced  a  too  ingenious  and  far-fetched  way 
of  speaking  and  writing  in  her  Court. 

Fauna,  the  collective  name  for  all  the  animals  of  a  region  or  country  ;  from 
Faunus,  a  Roman  god  of  the  woods  and  country.  (The  Fauni  were 
minor  rural  deities  of  Rome,  who  had  the  legs,  feet,  and  ears  of  a  goat, 
and  the  other  parts  of  the  body  of  a  human  shape.) 

Flora,  the  collective  name  for  all  the  plants  and  flowers  of  a  region  or 
country ;  from  Flora,  the  Roman  goddess  of  flowers. 

Galvanism,  from  Galvani,  an  Italian  physicist,  lecturer  on  anatomy  at 
Bologna,  who  discovered,  by  experiments  on  frogs,  that  animals  are 
endowed  with  a  certain  kind  of  electricity. 

Gordian  (knot),  the  knot  tied  by  Gordius  a  king  of  Phrygia,  who  had  been 
originally  a  peasant.  The  knot  by  which  he  tied  the  draught-pole 
of  his  chariot  to  the  yoke  was  so  intricate,  that  no  one  could  untie  it. 
A  rumour  spread  that  the  oracle  had  stated  that  the  empire  of  Asia 
would  belong  to  him  who  should  untie  the  Gordian  knot.  Alexander 
the  Great,  to  encourage  his  soldiers,  tried  to  untie  it ;  but,  finding 
that  he  could  not,  he  cut  it  through  with  his  sword,  and  declared  that 
he  had  thus  fulfilled  the  oracle. 

Guillotine,  an  instrument  for  beheading  at  one  stroke,  used  in  France. 
It  was  invented  during  the  time  of  the  Revolution  by  Dr  Guillotin. 

Hansom  (cab),  from  the  name  of  its  inventor. 

Hector  (to),  to  talk  big;  from  Hector,  the  bravest  of  the  Trojans,  as 
Achilles  was  the  bravest  of  the  Grecian  chiefs. 

Hermetically  (sealed),  so  sealed  as  to  entirely  exclude  the  outer  air ; 
from  Hermes,  the  name  of  the  Greek  god  who  corresponds  to  the 
Roman  god  Mercury.  Hermes  was  fabled  to  be  the  inventor  of 
chemistry. 

Jacobin,  a  revolutionist  of  the  extremest  sort ;  from  the  hall  of  the 
Jacobin  Friars  in  Paris,  where  the  revolutionists  used  to  meet. 
Robespierre  was  for  some  time  their  chief. 

Jacobite,  a  follower  of  the  Stuart  family ;  from  James  II.  (in  Latin 
Jacobus),  who  was  driven  from  the  English  throne  in  1688. 

January,  from  the  Roman  god  Janus,  a  god  with  two  faces,  "looking 
before  and  after." 

Jovial,  with  the  happy  temperament  of  a  person  born  under  the  influence 
of  the  star  Jupiter  or  Jove  ;  a  term  taken  from  the  old  astrology. 
(Opposed  to  saturnine,  gloomy,  because  born  under  the  star  Saturn.) 

July,  from  Julius,  in  honour  of  Julius  Caesar,  the  great  Roman  general, 

writer,  and  statesman — who  was  born  in  this  month. 
Lazaretto  or   Lazar-house.   from   Lazarus,   the  beggar  at  the  gate   of 


156  GRAMMAR   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Dives,  in  Luke  xvi.  The  word  is  corrupted  into  lizard  in  Lizard- 
point,  where  a  lazar-house  once  stood,  for  the  reception  of  sick  people 
from  on  board  ship. 

Lynch-law,  from  a  famous  Judge  Lynch,  of  Tennessee,  who  made  Bhort 
work  of  his  trials,  and  then  of  his  criminals. 

Macadamise,  to  make  roads  of  fragments  of  stones,  which  afterwards 
cohere  in  one  mass  ;  from  John  Loudon  Macadam,  the  inventor,  who, 
in  1827,  received  from  the  Government  a  reward  of  £10,000  for  his 
plan. 

March,  from  Mars,  the  Roman  god  of  war. 

Martinet,  a  severe  disciplinarian,  with  an  eye  for  the  smallest  details ; 
from  General  Martinet,  a  strict  commander  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. 
of  France. 

Mausoleum,  a  splendidly  built  tomb  ;  from  Mausolus,  King  of  Caria  in 
Asia  Minor,  to  whom  his  widow  erected  a  gorgeous  burial-chamber. 

Mentor,  an  adviser  ;  from  Mentor,  the  aged  counsellor  of  Telemachus,  the 
son  of  Ulysses. 

Mercurial,  of  light,  airy,  and  quick-spirited  temperament,  as  having  been 
born  under  the  planet  Mercury  (compare  Jovial,  Saturnine,  etc. ) 

Panic,  a  sudden  and  unaccountable  terror ;  from  Pan,  the  god  of  flocks 
and  shepherds.     He  was  fabled  to  appear  suddenly  to  travellers. 

Parrot  (  =  Little  Peter,  or  PeterTcin),  from  the  French  Perrot  =  Pierrot, 
from  Pierre,  Peter.  Compare  Magpie  =  Margaret  Pie;  Jackdaw; 
Robin-redbreast ;  Cuddy  (from  Cuthbert),  a  donkey,  etc. 

Petrel,  the  name  of  a  sea-bird  that  skims  the  tops  of  the  waves  in  a  storm, 
the  diminutive  of  Peter.  It  is  an  allusion  to  Matthew  xiv.  29.  These 
birds  are  called  by  sailors  "  Mother  Carey's  chickens." 

Phaeton,  a  kind  of  carriage  ;  from  Phaethon,  a  son  of  Apollo,  who  received 
from  his  father  permission  to  guide  the  chariot  of  the  Sun  for  a  single 
day. 

Philippic,  a  violent  political  speech  directed  against  a  person ;  from  the 
orations  made  by  Demosthenes,  the  great  Athenian  orator,  against 
Philip  of  Macedon,  the  father  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

Plutonic  (rocks),  igneous  rocks  (created  by  the  action  of  fire) — in  oppo- 
sition to  sedimentary  rocks,  which  have  been  formed  by  the  depositing 
action  of  water  ;  from  Pluto,  the  Roman  god  of  the  infernal  regions. 

Protean,  assuming  many  shapes  ;  from  Proteus,  a  sea-deity,  who  had 
received  the  gift  of  prophecy  from  Neptune,  but  who  was  very 
difficult  to  catch,  as  he  could  take  whatever  form  he  pleased. 

Quixotic,  fond  of  utterly  impracticable  designs  ;  from  Don  Quixote,  the 
hero  of  the  national  Spanish  romance,  by  Cervantes.  Don  Quixote  is 
made  to  tilt  at  windmills,  proclaim  and  make  war  against  whole 
nations  by  himself,  and  do  many  other  chivalrous  and  absurd 
things. 

Simony,  the  fault  of  illegally  buying  and  selling  church  livings ;  from 
Simon  Magus.     (See  Acts  viii.  18.) 


WORDS   DERIVED   FROM  THE  NAMES   OF  PERSONS.      157 

Stentorian,  very  loud  and  strong  ;  from  Stentor,  whom  Homer  describes 
as  the  loudest-voiced  man  in  the  Grecian  army  that  was  besieging 
Troy. 

Tantalise,  to  tease  with  impossible  hopes  ;  from  Tantalus,  a  king  of 
Lydia  in  Asia  Minor.  He  offended  the  gods,  and  was  placed  in 
Hades  up  to  his  lips  in  a  pool  of  water,  which,  when  he  attempted  to 
drink  it,  ran  away  ;  and  with  bunches  of  grapes  over  his  head,  which, 
when  he  tried  to  grasp  them,  were  blown  from  his  reach  by  a  blast  of 
wind. 

Tawdry,  shabby  —  a  term  often  applied  to  cheap  finery ;  from  St 
Ethelreda,  which  became  St  Audrey :  originally  applied  to  clothes 
sold  at  St  Audrey's  fair.  (Compare  TooLey  from  St  Olave ;  Ted  from 
St  Edmund;  etc.) 

Volcano  and  Vulcanite,  from  the  Roman  god  of  fire  and  smiths,  Vulcanus. 
A  volcano  was  regarded  as  the  chimney  of  one  of  his  workshops. 


158 


WORDS   DERIVED   PROM   THE   NAMES   OP 
PLACES. 

Academy,  from  Academia,  the  house  of  Academus,  a  friend  of  the  great 
Greek  philosopher  Plato,  who  was  allowed  to  teach  his  followers 
there.  Plato  taught  either  in  Academus's  garden,  or  in  his  own 
house. 

Artesian  (well),  from  Artois,  the  name  of  an  old  province  in  the  north- 
west of  France,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were  accustomed  to  pierce 
the  earth  for  water. 

Bayonet,  from  Bayonne,  in  the  south  of  France,  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay. 
(Compare  Pistol  from  Pistoia,  a  town  in  the  north  of  Italy. ) 

Bedlam,  the  name  for  a  lunatic  asylum — a  corruption  of  the  word  Beth- 
lehem (Hospital). 

Cambric,  the  name  of  the  finest  kind  of  linen  ;  from  Cambray,  a  tc  wn  in 
French  Flanders,  in  the  north-west  of  France. 

Canter,  an  easy  and  slow  gallop  ;  from  the  pace  assumed  by  the  Canter- 
bury Pilgrims,  when  riding  along  the  green  lanes  of  England  to  the 
shrine  of  Thomas  a  Becket. 

Carronade,  a  short  cannon ;  from  Carron,  in  Stirlingshire,  Scotland, 
where  it  was  first  made. 

Cherry  ;  from  Cerasus,  a  town  in  Pontus,  Asia  Minor,  where  it  was  much 
grown. 

Copper  and  Cypress  ;  from  the  island  of  Cyprus,  in  the  Mediterranean. 

Currants,  small  dried  grapes  from  Corinth,  in  Greece,  where  they  are  still 
grown  in  large  quantities.     They  are  shipped  at  the  port  of  Patras. 

Damson,  a  contraction  of  damascene ;  from  Damascus  =  the  Damascus 
plum.     (Hence  also  damask.) 

Dollar,  a  coin — the  chief  coin  used  in  America ;  from  German  Thaler 
( =  Daler,  or  something  made  in  a  dale  or  valley).  The  first  coins  of 
this  sort  were  made  in  St  Joachimsthal  in  Bohemia,  and  were  called 
Joachim's  thaler. 

Elysian  (used  with  fields  or  bliss),  from  Elysium,  the  place  to  which  the 
souls  of  brave  Greeks  went  after  death. 

Ermine,  the  fur  worn  on  judges'  robes  ;  from  Armenia,  because  this  fur 
is  "the  spoil  of  the  Armenian  rat." 


WORDS  DERIVED   FROM  THE   NAMES   OF   PLACES.       159 

Florin,  a  two-shilling  piece ;  from  Florence.  Professor  Skeat  says : 
"  Florins  were  coined  by  Edward  III.  in  1337,  and  named  after  the 
coins  of  Florence." 

Gasconading,  boasting  ;  from  Gascony,  a  southern  province  of  France,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  were  much  given  to  boasting.  One  Gascon,  on 
being  shown  the  Tuileries— the  palace  of  the  Kings  of  France — re- 
marked that  it  reminded  him  to  some  extent  of  his  father's  stables, 
which,  however,  were  somewhat  larger. 

Gipsy,  a  corrupt  form  of  the  word  Egyptian.  The  Gipsies  were  supposed 
to  come  from  Egypt.     (The  French  call  them  Bohemians.) 

Guinea,  a  coin  value  21s.  now  quite  out  of  use,  except  as  a  name — made 
of  gold  brought  from  the  Guinea  Coast,  in  the  west  of  Africa. 

Hock,  the  generic  term  for  all  kinds  of  Rhine-wine,  but  properly  only  the 
name  of  that  which  comes  from  Hochheim,  a  celebrated  vineyard. 

Indigo,  a  blue  dye,  obtained  from  the  leaves  of  certain  plants ;  from  the 
Latin  adjective  Indicus= belonging  to  India. 

Laconic,  short,  pithy,  and  full  of  sense  ;  from  Laconia,  a  country  in  the 
south  of  Greece,  the  capital  of  which  was  Sparta  or  Lacedsemon. 
The  Laconians,  and  especially  the  Spartans,  were  little  given  to  talk- 
ing, unlike  their  lively  rivals,  the  Athenians. 

Lilliputian,  very  small ;  from  Lilliput,  the  name  of  the  imaginary  country 
of  extremely  small  men  and  women,  visited  by  Captain  Lemuel 
Gulliver,  the  hero  of  Swift's  tale  called  '  Gulliver's  Travels.' 

Lumber,  useless  things  ;  from  Lombard,  the  Lombards  being  famous  for 
money-lending.  The  earliest  kind  of  banking  was  pawnbroking  ;  and 
pawnbrokers  placed  their  pledges  in  the  "  Lombard-room,"  which,  as  it 
gradually  came  to  contain  all  kinds  of  rubbish,  came  also  to  mean  and 
to  be  called  "lumber-room."     In  America,  timber  is  called  lumber. 

Meander  (to),  to  "wind  about  and  in  and  out  ;"  from  the  Maeander,  a 
very  winding  river  in  the  plain  of  Troy,  in  Phrygia,  in  the  north-west 
of  Asia  Minor. 

Magnesia  and  Magnet,  from  Magnesia,  a  town  in  Thessaly,  in  the  north 
of  Greece. 

Milliner,  originally  a  dealer  in  wares  from  Milan,  a  large  city  in  the  north 
of  Italy,  in  the  plain  of  the  Po. 

Muslin,  from  Mosul,  a  town  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  on  the  Tigris. 

Palace,  from  the  Latin  palatium,  a  building  on  Mons  Palatlnus,  one  of 
the  seven  hills  of  Rome.  This  building  became  the  residence  of 
Nere  and  other  Roman  emperorp ;  and  hence  palace  came  to  be  the 
generic  term  for  the  house  of  a  king  or  ruling  prince.  Palatinu*. 
itself  comes  from  Pales,  a  Roman  goddess  of  flocks,  and  is  connected 
with  the  Lat.  pater,  a  father  or  feeder. 

Peach,  from  Lat.  Persicum  (malum),  the  Persian  apple,  from  Persia, 
The  r  has  been  gradually  absorbed. 

Pheasant,  from  the  Phasis,  a  river  of  Colchis  in  Asia  Minor,  at  the  eastern 
end  of  the  Black  Sea,  from  which  these  birds  were  first-  brought. 


160  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

Port,  a  wine  from  Oporto,  in  Portugal.  (Compare  Sherry,  which  was 
originally  spelt  Sherris,  from  Xeres,  in  the  south  of  Spain. ) 

Rhubarb,  from  Rha  barbarum,  the  wild  Rha  plant.  Rha  is  an  old  name 
for  the  Volga,  from  the  banks  of  which  this  plant  was  imported. 

Solecism,  a  blunder  in  the  use  of  words ;  from  Soli,  a  town  in  Cilicia, 
in  Asia  Minor,  the  inhabitants  of  which  used  a  mixed  dialect. 

Spaniel,  a  sporting-dog  remarkable  for  its  sense  ;  from  Spain.  The  Old 
French  for  spaniel  was  "chien  eapagnol ;  "  the  latter  word  pre- 
serves the  prefix  of  ift'spania,  the  Latin  name  for  Spain. 

Stoic,  from  Stoa  Poikil6,  the  Painted  Porch,  a  porch  in  Athens,  where 
Zeno,  the  founder  of  the  Stoic  School,  taught  his  disciples. 

Utopian,  impossible  to  realise  ;  from  Utopia  (  =  Nowhere),  the  title  of  a 
story  written  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  in  which  he  described,  under 
the  guise  of  an  imaginary  island,  the  probable  state  of  England,  if 
her  laws  and  customs  were  reformed. 


161 


WORDS    DISGUISED    IN    FORM. 

When  a  word  is  imported  from  a  foreign  language  into  our 
own,  there  is  a  natural  tendency  among  the  people  who  use  the 
word  to  give  it  a  native  and  homely  dress,  and  so  to  make  it 
look  like  English.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  proper 
names.  Thus  the  walk  through  St  James's  Park  from  Bucking- 
ham Palace  to  the  House  of  Commons  was  called  Socage  Walk 
(that  is,  shrubbery  walk) ;  but,  as  Socage  was  a  strange  word  to 
the  Londoner,  it  became  quickly  corrupted  into  Birdcage  "Walk, 
though  there  is  not,  and  never  was,  any  sign  of  birdcages  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Birdcage  is  a  known  word,  Bocage  is  not — 
that  is  the  whole  matter.  In  the  same  way,  our  English  sailors, 
when  they  captured  the  French  ship  Bellerophon,  spoke  of  it  as 
the  Billy  Ruffian ;  and  our  English  soldiers  in  India  mentioned 
Surajah  Dowlali,  the  prince  who  put  the  English  prisoners  into 
the  Black  Hole,  as  Sir  Roger  Dowler.  The  same  phenomenon 
is  observed  also  in  common  names — and  not  infrequently.  The 
following  are  some  of  the  most  remarkable  examples  : — 

Alligator,  from  Spanish  el  lagarto,  the  lizard.  The  article  el  (from  Latin 
Hie)  has  clung  to  the  word.  Lat.  lacerta,  a  lizard.  (The  Arabic 
article  al  has  clung  to  the  noun  in  alchemy,  algebra,  almanac,  etc.) 

Artichoke  (no  connection  with  choke),  from  ItaL  articiocco  ;  from  Arabic 
al  harshaff,  an  artichoke. 

Atonement,  a  hybrid — atone  being  English,  and  ment  a  Latin  ending. 
Atone = to  bring  or  come  into  one.  Shakespeare  has  "Earthly  things, 
made  even,  atone  together." 

Babble,  from  ba  and  the  frequentative  le  ;  it  means  "to  keep  on  saying  "  ba. 

Bank,  a  form  of  the  word  bench,  a  money-table. 

Belfry  (nothing  to  do  with  beU),  from  M.  E.  berfray ;  0.  Fr.  berfroit,  a 
watch-tower. 


162  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Brimstone,  from  burn.    The  r  is  an  easily  moved  letter — as  in  three,  third ; 

turn,  trundle,  etc. 
Bugle,  properly  a  wild  ox.     Bugle,  in  the  sense  of  a  musical  instrument, 

is  really  short  for  bugle-horn.     Lat.  buculus,  a  bullock,  a  diminutive 

of  bos. 
Bustard,  from  0.  Fr.  oustarde,  from  Lat.  avis  tarda,  the  tardy  or  slow 

bird. 
Butcher,  from  0.  Fr.  bocher,  a  man  who  slaughters  he-goats ;  from  boc, 

the  French  form  of  buck. 
Butler,  the  servant  in  charge  of  the  butts  or  casks  of  wine.     (The  whole 

collection  of  butts  was  called  the  buttery ;  a  little  butt  is  a  bottle. ) 
Buxom,  stout,  healthy;  but  in  0.  E.  obedient.     "Children,  be  buxom  to 

your  parents."     Connected  with  bow  and  bough.     From  A.  S.  bugan, 

to  bend  ;  which  gives  also  bow,  bight,  boat,  elbow  (=  el-bock),  etc. 
Carfax,  a  place  where  four  roads  meet.     0.  Fr.  carrefourgs  ;  Latin  quatuor 

furcas,  four  forks. 
Carouse,  from  German  gar  aus,  quite  out.     Spoken  of  emptying  a  goblet. 
Caterpillar  =  hairy-cat,  from  0.  Fr.  chate,  a  she-cat,  and  0.  Fr.  pelouse, 

hairy,  Lat.  pilosus.     Compare  woolly-bear. 
Causeway  (no  connection  with  way),  from  Fr.  chausee  ;  Lat.  calceata  via,  a 

way  strewed  with  limestone ;  from  Lat.  calx,  lime. 
Clove,  through  Fr.  clou,  from  Lat.  clavus,  a  nail,  from  its  resemblance  to 

a  small  naiL 
Constable,  from  Lat.  comes  stabuli,  count  of  the  stable ;  hence  Master  oi 

the  Horse ;  and,  in  the  13th  century,  commander  of  the  king's  army. 
Coop,  a  cognate  of  cup ;  from  Lat.  cupa,  a  tub. 
Cope,  a  later  spelling  of  cape.     Cap.,  cape,  and  cope  are  forms  of  the  same 

word. 
Costermonger,  properly  costard-monger ;  from  costard,  a  large  apple. 
Counterpane  (not  at  all  connected  with  counter  or  with  pane,  but  with 

quilt  and  point),  a  coverlet  for  a  bed.     The  proper  form  is  contre- 

pointe,  from  Low  Lat.  culcita  puncta,  a  punctured  quilt. 
Country-dance  used  to  be  explained  as  a  corruption  of  the  French 

contre-danse  ;  a  dance  in  which  each  dancer  stands  contre  or  contra 

or  opposite  his  partner.     But  it  simply  means  "a  rustic  dance." 
Coward,  an  animal  that  drops  his  tail.     0.  Fr.  col  and  ard ;  from  Lat. 

cauda,  a  tail. 
Crayfish,  (nothing  to  do  with  fish),  from  0.  Fr.  escrevxsse.     This  is  really 

a  Frenchified  form  of  the  German  word  Krebs,  which  is  the  German 

form  of  our  English  word  crab.     The  true  division  of  the  word  into 

syllables  is  crayf-ish  ;  and  thus  the  seeming  connection  with  fish  dis- 
appears. 
Custard,  a  misspelling  of  the  M.  E.  word  crustade,  a  general  name  for  piea 

made  with  crust. 
Daisy  =  day's  eye       Chaucer  says :    "  The  dayes  eye  or  else  the  eye  of 

day  ' 


WORDS  DISGUISED  IN  FORM.  163 

Dandelion  =  dent  de  lion,  the  lion's  tooth ;  so   named  from  its  jagged 

leaves. 
Dirge,  a  funeral  song  of  sorrow.  In  the  Latin  service  for  the  dead,  one  part 
began  with  the  words  (Ps.  v.  8)  dirige,  Dominus  meus,  in  conspectu 
tuo  vitam  meam,  "  Direct  my  life,  O  Lord,  in  thy  sight ; "  and  dirige 
was  contracted  into  dirge. 

Drawing-room  =  withdrawing-room,  a  room  to  which  guests  retire  after 
dinner. 

Dropsy  (no  connection  with  drop),  from  0.  Fr.  hydroplsie,  from  Gr. 
hudor,  water.  (Compare  chirurgeon,  which  has  been  shortened  into 
surgeon;  example,  into  sample ;  estate  into  state.) 

Easel,  a  diminutive  of  the  word  ass,  through  the  Dutch  ezel ;  like  the 
Latin  asellus. 

Farthing  =  fourthing.     (Four  appears  as  fir  in  firkin  ;  and  as  for  in  forty. 

Frontispiece  (not  connected  with  piece),  that  which  is  seen  or  placed  in 
front.     Lat.  specio,  I  see. 

Gadfly  =  goad-fly  (sting-fly). 

Gospel  =  God-spell,  a  narrative  about  God. 

Grove,  originally  a  lane  cut  through  trees.  A  doublet  of  groove,  and 
grave,  from  A.  S.  grafan,  to  dig. 

Haft,  that  by  which  we  nave  or  hold  a  thing. 

Hamper,  old  form,  hanaper ;  from  Low  Latin  hanaperium,  a  large  basket 
for  keeping  drinking-cups  (hanapi)  in. 

Handsel,  money  given  into  the  hand  ;  from  A.  S.  seUan,  to  give. 

Hanker,  to  keep  the  mind  hanging  on  a  thing.  Er  is  a  frequentative  suffix, 
as  in  batter,  linger,  etc. 

Harbinger,  a  man  who  goes  before  to  provide  a  harbour  or  lodging-place 
for  an  army.  The  n  is  intrusive,  as  in  porringer,  passenger,  and  mes- 
senger. (The  ruins  of  old  Roman  villas  were  often  used  by  English 
travellers  as  inns.  Such  places  were  called  "  Cold  Harbours."  There 
are  numerous  places  of  this  name  in  England — commonly  occurring 
on  the  great  Roman  roads. ) 

Hatchment,  the  escutcheon,  shield,  or  eoat-of-arms  of  a  deceased  person, 
displayed  in  front  of  his  house.  A  corruption  (by  the  intrusion  of  h) 
of  atch'ment,  the  short  form  of  achievement,  the  old  spelling  of 
achievement,  which  is  still  the  heraldic  word  for  hatchment. 

Hawthorn  =  hedge-thorn.  Haw  was  in  0.  E.  haga ;  and  the  hard  g 
became  a  w ;  and  also  became  softened,  under  French  influence,  into 
dg.  Haha,  older  form  Hawhaw,  is  a  sunk  fence. 

Heaven,  that  which  is  heaved  up  ;  heavy,  that  which  requires  much 
heaving. 

Horehound  (not  connected  with  hound),  a  plant  with  stems  covered  with 
white  woolly  down.  The  M.  E.  form  is  hoar-hune  ;  and  the  second 
syllable  means  scented.  The  syllable  hoar  means  white,  as  in  hoar- 
frost. The  final  d  is  excrescent  or  inorganic— like  the  d  in  sound,  bound 
(«=  ready  to  go),  etc. 


164  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Humble-bee  (not  connected  with  the  adjective  humble),  from  M.  E. 
hummelen,  to  keep  humming  —  a  frequentative ;  the  b  being  in- 
organic. 

Humble-pie  (not  connected  with  the  adjective  humble),  pie  made  of 
umbles,  the  entrails  of  a  deer. 

Husband,  (not  connected  with  bind),  from  Icelandic  husbuandi,  buandi, 
being  the  pres.  participle  of  bua,  to  dwell ;  and  hus,  house. 

Hussif  (connected  with  house,  but  not  with  wife),  a  case  containing  needles, 
thread,  etc.  From  Icelandic,  h^si,  a  case,  a  cognate  of  house.  The  f 
is  intrusive,  from  a  mistaken  opinion  that  the  word  was  a  short  form 
of  housewife. 

Hussy,  a  pert  girl ;  a  corruption  of  housewife. 

Icicle,  (the  ending  cle  is  not  the  diminutive)  a  hanging  point  of  ice.  The 
A.  S.  form  is  isgicel,  a  compound  of  is,  ice,  and  gicel,  a  small  piece  of 
ice  ;  so  that  the  word  contains  a  redundant  element.  (The  ic  in  icicle  is 
entirely  different  from  the  ic  in  art-ic-le  and  in  part-ic-le.) 

Intoxicate,  to  drug  or  poison  ;  from  Low  Lat.  toxicum,  poison  ;  from  Gr. 
toxon,  a  bow,  plural  toxa,  bow  and  arrows — arrows  for  war  being  fre- 
quently dipped  in  poison. 

Island  (not  connected  with  isle)  =  water-land,  a  misspelling  for  iland  (the 
spelling  that  Milton  always  uses).  The  s  has  intruded  itself  from  a 
confusion  with  the  Lat.  insula,  which  gives  isle. 

Jaw,  properly  chaw,  the  noun  for  chew.     Cognates  are  jowl  and  chaps. 

Jeopardy,  hazard,  danger.  M.  E.  jupartie,  from  0.  Fr.  jeu  parti,  a  game 
in  which  the  chances  are  even,  from  Low  Lat.  focus  partltus,  a  divided 
game. 

Jerusalem  artichoke  (not  at  all  connected  with  Jerusalem),  a  kind  of  sun- 
flower. Italian  girasole,  from  Lat.  gyrus,  a  circle,  and  sol,  the  sun. 
(In  order  to  clench  the  blunder  contained  in  the  word  Jerusalem, 
cooks  call  a  soup  made  of  this  kind  of  artichoke  "Palestine  soup  ! ") 

Kickshaws,  from  Fr.  quelquechose,  something.  There  was  once  a  plural 
— Tcickshawses. 

Kind,  the  adjective  from  the  noun  kin. 

Ledge,  a  place  on  which  a  thing  lies.     Hence  also  ledger. 

Line  (to  line  garments)  =  to  put  linen  inside  them.  {Linen  is  really  an 
adjective  from  the  M.  E.  lin,  just  like  woollen,  golden,  etc.) 

Liquorice  (not  connected  with  liquor),  in  M.  E.  licoris ;  from  Gr. 
glylcyrrhiza,  a  sweet  root.  (For  the  loss  of  the  initial  g,  compare 
Ipswich  and  Gyppenswich ;  enough  and  genoh;  and  the  loss  of  ge 
from  all  the  past  participles  of  our  verbs.) 

Mead,  meadow  =  a  place  mowed.  Hence  also  math,  aftermath,  and  moth 
( =  the  biter  or  eater). 

Nostrils =nose-thirles,  nose-holes.  Thirl  is  a  cognate  of  thrill,  drill, 
through,  etc.  (For  change  of  position  of  r,  compare  turn,  trundle; 
work,  wright ;  wort,  root ;  bride,  bird,  etc. ) 

Nuncheon,  a  corruption  of  M.  E.  none-schenche,  or  noon-drink.     Then 


WORDS   DISGUISED  IN   FORM.  165 

this  word  got  mixed  up  with  the  provincial  English  word   lunch, 

which  means  a  lump  of  bread ;  and  so  we  have  luncheon. 
Nutmeg,  a  hybrid  compounded  of  an  English  and  a  French  word.     Meg  is  a 

corruption  of  the  0.  Fr.  musge,  from  Lat.  museum,  musk. 
Orchard  =  wort-yard,   yard  or  garden   for  roots  or  plants.      Wort  is  a 

cognate  of  wart  and  root. 
Ostrich,  from  Lat.  avis  struthio.    Shakespeare  spells  it  estridge  in  "  Antony 

and  Cleopatra,"  iil  13.  197,  "The  dove  will  peck  the  estridge."     (Avis 

is  found  as  a  prefix  in  bustard  also. ) 
Pastime  =  that  which  enables  one  to  pass  the  time. 
Pea-jacket  (not  connected  with  pea),  a  short  thick  jacket  often  worn  by 

seamen ;  from  the  Dutch  pije,  a  coarse  woollen  coat.      Thus  the 

word  jacket  is  superfluous.     In  M.  E.  py  was  a  coat ;  and  we  find  it 

in  Chaucer  combining,  with  a  French  adjective,  to  make  the  hybrid 

courtepy,  a  short  coat. 
Peal  (of  bells),  a  short  form  of  the  word  appeal ;  a  call  or  summons. 

(Compare  penthouse   and  appentis ;   sample  and  example;   scutcheon 

and  escutcheon;  squire  and  esquire ;  etc.) 
Penthouse  (not  connected  with  house),  in  reality  a  doublet  of  appendage, 

though  not  coming  from  it.    0.  Fr.  appentis,  from  Lat.  appendicium, 

from  appendix,  something  hanging  on  to.     (Pendere,  to  hang. ) 
Periwinkle,  a  kind  of  evergreen  plant ;   formed,  by  the  addition  of  the 

diminutive  le,  from  Lat.  pervlnca,  from  vincire,  to  bind. 
Periwinkle,  a  small  mollusc  with  one  valve.     A  corruption  of  the  A.  S. 

pinewincla. 
Pickaxe  (not  connected  with  axe),  a  tool  used  in  digging.     A  corruption 

of  M.  E.  pickeys,  from  0.  Fr.  picois  ;  and  connected  with  peak,  pike, 

and  pick. 
Poach  =  to  put  in  the  poke,  pocket,  or  pouch.     So  poached  eggs  are  eggs 

dressed  so  as  to  keep  the  yoke  in  a  pouch.     Cognates  are  pock,  small- 
pox (=  pocks),  etc. 
Porpoise  (not  connected  with  the  verb  poise)  ;  from  Lat.  porcum,  a  pig, 

and  piscem,  a  fish. 
Posthumous  (work),  a  work  that  appears  after  the  death  of  the  author  ; 

from  Lat.  postumus,  the  last.      The  h  is  an  error  ;  and  the  word 

has  no  connection  with  the  Lat.  humus,  the  ground. 
Privet,  a  half -evergreen  shrub.    A  form  of  primet,  a  plant  carefully  cut  and 

trimmed  ;  and  hence  prim.    (For  change  of  m  into  v  (or  p),  compare 

Molly  and  Polly  ;  Matty  and  Patty,  etc.     V  and  p  are  both  labials.) 
Proxy,  a  contraction  of  procuracy,  the  taking  care  of  a  thing  for  another. 

Lat.  pro  for,  and  cura,  care. 
Quick,  living.     We  have  the  word  in  quicklime,  quicksand,  quicksilver; 

and  in  the  phrase  "the  quick  and  the  dead.'' 
Quinsy,  a  bad  sore  throat,  a  contraction  of  0.  Fr.  squinancie,  formed,  by 

the  addition  of  a  prefixed  and  strengthening  s,  from  Gr.  kynanche,  a 
dog-throttling. 


166  GRAMMAR  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Riding,  one  of  the  three  divisions  of  Yorkshire.  The  oldest  form  is  Thrid- 
ing  (from  third  and  ing,  part ;  as  in  farthing  =  fourth  part,  etc.)  The 
th  seems  to  have  dropped  from  its  similarity  and  nearness  to  the  th 
in  north  and  the  t  in  east ;  as  in  North-thriding,  East-thriding,  etc. 

Sexton,  a  corruption  of  sacristan,  the  keeper  of  the  sacred  vessels  and 
vestments  ;  from  Lat.  sacer,  sacred.  But  the  sexton  is  now  only  the 
grave-digger.      (In  the  same  way,  sacristy  was  shortened  into  sextry.\ 

Sheaf,  a  collection  shoved  together.  Shove  gives  also  shovel;  and  the 
frequentatives  shuffle  and  scuffle. 

Soup,  a  cognate  of  sop  and  sup. 

Splice  (to  join  after  splitting),  a  cognate  form  of  split  and  splinter. 

Squirrel,  from  0 .  Fr.  escurel ;  from  Low  Lat.  scuriolus  ;  from  Gr.  skta, 
a  shadow,  and  oura,  a  tail.     Hence  the  word  means  "  shadow-tail.'' 

Starboard,  the  steering  side  of  a  ship — the  right,  as  one  stands  looking  to 
the  bow. 

Stew,  the  verb  corresponding  to  stove.  (Cf.  Scotch  stovies  =  stewed 
potatoes.) 

Steward,  from  A.  S.  stiward,  from  the  full  form  stigweard ;  from  stige,  a 
sty,  and  weard,  a  keeper.  Originally  a  person  who  looked  after  the 
domestic  animals. 

Stirrup,  modern  form  of  A.  S.  stigrap,  from  stigan,  to  climb,  and  rap,  a 
rope.     Cognates  are  sty,  stile,  stair. 

Straight,  an  old  past  participle  of  stretch.  (Strait  is  a  French  form  of  the 
word  strict,  from  Lat.  strictus,  tied  up.) 

Strong,  a  nasalised  form  of  stark.  Derivatives  are  strength,  strengthen, 
string,  etc. 

Summerset  (not  connected  either  with  summer  or  with  set),  or  somersault,  a 
corruption  of  Fr.  soubresault,  from  Lat.  supra,  above,  and  saltum,  a 
leap.  (There  is  a  connection  between  the  b  and  the  m — the  one 
sliding  into  the  other  when  the  speaker  has  a  cold.) 

Surgeon  (properly  a  hand-worker),  a  contraction  of  chirurgeon;  from 
Gr.  cheir,  the  hand,  and  ergon,  work. 

Tackle,  that  which  takes  or  grasps,  holding  the  masts  of  a  ship  in  their 
places.     The  le  is  the  same  as  that  in  settle  (a  seat),  girdle,  etc. 

Tale,  from  A.  S.  talu,  number.  Derivatives  are  tell  and  till  (box  for 
money),  but  not  talk,  which  is  a  Scandinavian  word. 

Tansy,  a  tall  plant,  with  small  yellow  flowers,  used  in  medicine  ;  from 
0.  F.  athanasie;  from  Gr.  athanasia,  immortality. 

Thorough,  a  doublet  of  through,  and  found  in  thorough-fare,  thorough- 
bred, etc.  (The  dr,  thr,  or  tr  is  also  found  in  door,  thrill,  trill,  drill, 
nostril,  etc.) 

Treacle,  from  M.  E.  triacle,  a  remedy;  from  Lat.  theriaca,  an  antidote 
against  the  bite  of  serpents ;  from  Gr.  therion,  a  wild  beast  or 
poisonous  animal.  Milton  has  the  phrase  "the  sovran  treacle  of 
sound  doctrine."  (For  the  position  of  the  r,  compare  trundle  and 
turn  ;  brid  and  oird ;  etc. ) 


WORDS   DISGUISED   IN  FORM.  167 

Truffle,  an  underground  edible  fungus ;  from  Italian  tartufola ;  tar 
being  =*Lat.  terrce,  of  the  ground,  and  tu/0la  =  tuber,  a  root.  Trifle 
ia  a  doublet  of  truffle. 

Twig  a  thin  branch  of  a  tree.  The  tw  here  is  the  base  of  two,  and  is 
found  also  in  twin,  twilight,  twice,  twine  ;  and  probably  also  in  tweak, 
twist,  twinkle,  etc.  (Twit  is  not  in  this  class  ;  it  comes  from  at- 
witan,  to  throw  blame  on.) 

Verdigris  (not  connected  with  grease),  the  rust  of  brass  or  copper.  From 
Lat.  viride  aeris,  the  green  of  brass.  (The  g  is  intrusive,  and  has  not 
yet  been  accounted  for. ) 

Walrus,  a  kind  of  large  seal ;  from  Swedish  vallross  =  a  whale-horse. 
The  older  form  of  ross  is  found  in  Icelandic  as  hross,  which  is  a  doub- 
let of  the  A-  S.  hors.  The  noise  made  by  the  animal  somewhat 
resembles  a  neigh. 

Wassail,  a  merry  carouse  ;  from  A.  S.  wes  hael  =  Be  well  !  Wes  is  the 
imperative  of  wesan  to  be  (still  existing  in  was) ;  and  hael  is  connected 
with  hail/  hale  (Scand.),  whole  (Eng.),  and  health. 

Whole,  a  misspelling,  now  never  to  be  corrected,  of  hole,  the  adjective 
connected  with  hale,  heal,  health,  healthy,  etc.  The  w  is  probably  an 
intrusion  from  the  S.-W.  of  England,  where  they  say  whoam  for  home, 
woat  for  oat,  etc.  If  we  write  whole,  we  ought  also  to  write  wholy 
instead  of  holy. 


168 


WORDS   THAT   HAVE  GREATLY   CHANGED 

IN   MEANING. 


Abandon,  to  proclaim  openly ;  to  de- 
nounce ;  then  to  cast  out.  (From  Low 
Lat,  banduvi,  an  edict.)  The  earlier 
meaning  still  survives  in  the  phrase, 
"  banns  of  marriage." 

Admire,  to  wonder  at. 

Allow,  to  praise  (connected  with  laud). 

Amuse,  to  cause  to  muse,  to  occupy  the 
mind  of.  "  Camillus  set  upon  the  Gauls, 
when  they  were  amused  in  receiving 
their  gold,"  says  a  writer  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

Animosity,  high  spirits;  from  Lat.  ani- 
moms,  brave. 

Artillery  (great  weapons  of  war),  was  used 
to  inciude  bows,  crossbows,  etc.,  down 
to  the  time  of  Milton  See  P.  L.  ii.  715 ; 
and  1  Sam.  xx  40. 

Awkward,  going  the  wrong  way.  From 
M.  E.  awk,  contrary.  "The  awk  end" 
was  the  wrong  end.  "With  awkward 
wind  "  =  with  contrary  wind. 

Babe,  doll.    Spenser  says  of  a  pedlar— 
"  He  bore  a  truss  of  trifles  at  his  back, 
As  bells,  and  babes,  and  glasses  in  his 
pack." 

Blackguard,  the  band  of  lowest  kitehen 
servants,  who  had  to  look  after  the  spits, 
pots,  and  pans,  etc. 

Bombast  (an  inflated  and  pompous  style 
of  speaking  or  writing),  cotton-wadding. 

Boor  (a  rough  unmannerly  fellow),  a  tiller 
of  the  soil ;  from  the  Dutch  louwen,  bo 


till.    (Compound  neighbour.)    In  South 
Africa,  a  farmer  is  still  called  a  boer. 

Brat  (a  contemptuous  name  for  a  child), 
a  Celtic  word  meaning  rag.  Still  used 
as  a  dialect  word  meaning  a.  pinafore- 

Brave,  showy,  3plendid.  (Cf.  Scotch  braw.) 

By-and-by,  at  once. 

Carpet,  the  covering  of  tables  as  well  as 
of  floors. 

Carriage  (that  which  carries)  meant  for- 
merly that  which  was  carried,  or  bag- 
gage.   See  Acts  xxi.  15. 

Cattle,  a  doublet  of  chattels,  property. 
Lat.  capitalia,  heads  (of  oxen,  etc.) 
Chaucer  says,  "  The  avaricious  man  hath 
more  hope  in  his  catel  than  in  Christ." 

Censure  (blame>  meant  merely  opinion; 
from  the  Lat  censeo,  I  think.  Shake- 
speare, in  Hamlet  i.  3.  69,  makes  Polon- 
ius  say :  "  Take  each  man's  censure,  but 
reserve  thy  judgment." 

Charity  (almsgiving)  meant  love;  from 
Lat.  earns,  dear,  through  the  French. 

Cheat  (to  deceive  for  the  purpose  of  gain) 
meant  to  seize  upon  a  thing  as  escheated 
or  forfeited. 

Cheer,  face.  "  Be  of  good  cheer  "= "  Put 
a  good  face  upon  it."  "  His  cheer  fell " 
=  "  His  countenance  fell." 

Churl  (an  uncourteous  or  disobliging  per- 
son) meant  a  countryman.  Der.  chur- 
lish. (Shakespeare  also  uses  the  word 
in  the  sense  of  a  miser.) 


WOEDS  THAT  HAVE   GREATLY   CHANGED   IN  MEANING.    169 


Clumsy,  stiff  with  cold.  "When  thou 
clomsest  with  cold,"  says  Langland  (14th 
century)  =  art  benumbed.  (Cognates, 
damp,  cramp.) 

Companion,  low  fellow.  Shakespeare  has 
such  phrases  as  "  Companions,  hence  1" 

Conceit  (too  high  an  opinion  of  one's  self) 
meant  simply  thought.  Chaucer  was 
called  "a  conceited  clerk "  =  "a  learned 
man  full  of  thoughts."  From  Lat.  con- 
ceptus,  a  number  of  facts  brought  to- 
gether into  one  general  conception  or 
idea.  Shakespeare  has  the  phrase  "pass- 
ing all  conceit  "  =  beyond  all  thought. 

Count  (to  number)  meant  to  think  (2 
with  3,  &c.)  with ;  from  Lat.  computo, 
I  compute  or  think  with.  Count  is  a 
doublet,  through  French,  of  compute. 

Cunning,  able  or  skilled.  Like  the  word 
craft,  it  has  lost  its  innocent  sense. 

Danger,  jurisdiction,  legal  power  over. 
The  Duke  of  Venice  says  to  the  Mer- 
chant, "You  stand  within  his  danger, 
do  you  not?"  M.  V.  iv.  1.  180. 

Defy,  to  pronounce  all  bonds  of  faith 
dissolved.    Lat.  fides,  fartk 

Delicious,  too  scrupulous  or  finical.  A 
writer  of  the  seventeenth  century  says 
that  idleness  makes  even  "  the  sober- 
est (most  moderate;  men  delicious." 

Depart,  part  or  divide.  The  older  version 
of  the  Prayer-Book  has  "till  death  us 
depart "  (now  corrupted  into  do  part). 

Disaster,  an  unfavourable  star.  A  term 
from  the  old  astrology. 

Disease,  discomfort,  trouble.  Shakespeare 
has,  "  She  will  disease  our  bitter  mirth ; " 
and  Tyndale'8  version  of  Mark  v.  35,  is, 
"Thy  daughter  is  dead:  why  diseasest 
thou  the  Master  any  further?" 

Duke,  leader.  Hannibal  was  called  in  old 
English  writers,  "Duke  of  Carthage." 

Ebb,  shallow.  "  Cross  the  stream  where 
it  is  ebbest,"  is  a  Lancashire  proverb. 
(The  word  is  a  cognate  of  even.) 

Essay,  an  attempt.  The  old  title  of  such 
a  book  was  not  "  Essay  on  "  but  "  Essay 
at."    From  Lat.  exagium,  a  weighing. 


An  older  form  is  Assay.   Shakespeare  has 
such  phrases  as  "the  assay  of  arms." 

Explode,  to  drive  out  by  clapping  of  the 
hands.  The  opposite  of  applaud.  Lat. 
plaudo,  I  clap  my  hands. 

Explosion,  a  hissing  a  thing  off  the  stage. 

Firmament,  that  which  makes  firm  or 
strong.  Jeremy  Taylor  (seventeenth 
century)  says,  "Custom  is  the  firma- 
ment of  the  law." 

Fond,  foolish.  The  past  participle  of 
A.  S.  fonnen,  to  act  foolishly. 

Frightful,  full  of  fear.  (Compare  the  old 
meaning  of  dreadful.) 

Garble,  to  sift  or  cleanse.  Low  Lat. 
garbellare,  to  sift  corn. 

Garland,  a  king's  crown ;  now  a  wreath  of 
flowers. 

Gazette  (Italian),  a  magpie.  Hence  the 
Ital.  gazettare,  to  chatter  like  a  magpie; 
to  write  tittle-tattle.  (It  was  also  the 
name  of  a  very  small  coin,  current  in 
Venice,  etc.) 

Generous,  high-born.  Lat.  genus,  race 
Compare  the  phrases  "  a  man  of  family ; ' 
"  a  man  of  rank."  Shakespeare  has  "  the 
generous  citizens"  for  those  of  high 
birth. 

Gossip,  sib  or  related  in  God  ;  a  godfather 
or  godmother.  It  now  means  such  per- 
sonal talk  as  usually  goes  on  among  such 
persons.  (Compare  the  French  commere 
and  commerage.) 

Handsome,  clever  with  the  hands. 

Harbinger,  a  person  who  prepared  a  har- 
bour or  lodging. 

Heathen,  a  person  who  lives  on  a  heath. 
(Cf.  pagan,  person  who  lives  in  a  pagus, 
or  country  district.) 

Hobby,  an  easy  ambling  nag. 

Idiot  (Gr.  ididtes),  a  private  person;  a 
person  who  kept  aloof  from  public  busi- 
ness.   Cf.  idiom  ;  idiosyncrasy ;  etc. 

Imp,  an  engrafted  shoot.  Chaucer  says : 
"  Of  feeble  trees  there  comen  wretched 

impes." 
Spenser  has  "  Well  worthy  impe," 


170 


GRAMMAR   OF   THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


Impertinent,  not  pertaining  to  the 
matter  in  hand. 

Indifferent,  impartial.  "God  is  indiffer- 
ent to  all." 

Insolent,  unusual.  An  old  writer  praises 
Raleigh's  poetry  as  "insolent  and  pas- 
sionate." 

Kind,  born,  inborn ;  natural ;  and  then 
loving. 

Knave,  boy.  "A  knave  child  "=a  male 
child.  Sir  John  Mandeville  speaks  of 
Mahomet  as  "a  poure  knave." 

Lace,  a  snare.     Lat.  laqrieus,  a  noose. 

Livery,  that  which  is  given  or  delivered, 
Fr.  livrer;  from  Lat  liber  are,  to  free. 
It  was  applied  both  to  food  and  to 
clothing.  "A  horse  at  livery  "  still  means 
a  horse  not  merely  kept,  but  also  fed. 

Magnificent,  doing  great  things ;  large- 
minded.  Bacon  says,  "  Bounty  and 
magnificence  are  virtues  very  regal." 

Maker,  a  poet. 

Manure,  to  work  with  the  hand  ;  a  doublet 
of  manoeuvre.    (Lat.  manus,  the  hand.) 

Mere,  utter.  Lac.  merus, pure.  Shakespeare, 
in  "Othello,"  speaks  of  "the  mere  per- 
dition of  the  Turkish  fleet."  "Mere 
wine  "  was  unmixed  wine. 

Metal,  a  mine. 

Minute,  something  very  small.  Lat.  min- 
utust  made  small;  from  minus,  less. 
Cognates,  minor ;  minish ;  diminish;  etc. 

Miscreant,  an  unbeliever.  Lat.  mis  (from 
minus),  and  credo,  I  believe;  through 
O.  Fr.  mescreant. 

Miser,  a  wretched  person.   Lat.  miser,  mis- 
erable. 
Nephew,  a  grandchild.    (Lat.  nepos.) 

Nice,  too  scrupulous  or  fastidious.    Shake- 
speare, in  "  K.  John,"  iii.  4.  138,  says— 
"  He  that  stands  upon  a  slippery  place, 
Makes  nice  of  no  vile  hold  to  stay  him 
up." 

Niece,  a  grandchild.    Lat.  neptis. 

Novelist,  an  innovator. 


Offal,  that  which  is  allowed  to  fall  off. 

Officious,  obliging.  In  modern  diplomacy, 
an  official  communication  is  one  made 
in  the  way  of  business  ;  an  officious  com- 
munication is  a  friendly  and  irregular 
one.  Burke,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
speaks  of  the  French  nobility  as  "  very 
officious  and  hospitable." 

Ostler = hosteller.  The  keeper  of  a  hostel 
or  hotel.  (A  comic  derivation  is  that  it 
is  a  contraction  of  oatsiealer). 

Painful,  painstaking.  Fuller,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  speaks  of  Joseph  as  "  a 
painful  carpenter." 

Palliate,  to  throw  a  cloak  over.  Lat.  pal- 
lium, a  cloak. 

Pencil,  a  small  hair  brush.  Lat.  penecillusx 
a  little  tail. 

Peevish,  obstinate. 

Perspective,  a  glass  for  seeing  either  near 
or  distant  things. 

Pester,  to  encumber  or  clog.  From  Low 
Lat.  ■pastorium,  a  clog  for  horses  in  a 
pasture. 

Plantation,  a  colony  of  men  planted. 

Plausible,  having  obtained  applause. 
"Every  one  received  him  plausibly," 
says  a  seventeenth-century  writer. 

Polite,  polished.  A  seventeenth-century 
writer  has  "polite  bodies  as  looking- 


Pomp,  a  procession. 

Preposterous,  putting  the  last  first.  Lat. 
prce,  before  ;  and  post,  after. 

Prevaricate,  to  reverse,  to  shuffle.  Lat. 
prcevaricari,  to  spread  the  legs  apart 
in  walking. 

Prevent,  to  go  before.  Lat.  jjtcb,  before, 
and  venio,  I  come.  The  Prayer-Book  has, 
"  Prevent  us,  O  Lord,  in  all  our  doings." 

Prodigious,  ominous.  "A  prodigious 
meteor,"  meant  a  meteor  of  bad  omen. 

Punctual,  attending  to  small  points  of 
detail.    Lat.  punctum  ;  Fr.  point. 


WORDS  THAT  HIVE   GREATLY  CHANGED  IN  MEANING.     171 


Quaint,  skilful.  Prospero,  in  the  "Tem- 
pest." calls  Ariel  *  My  quaint  Ariel  I  " 

Racy,  having  the  strong  and  native  qual- 
ities of  the  race.     Cowley  says  of  a  poet 
that  he  is— 
"  Fraught  with  brisk  racy  verses,  in 

which  we 
The  soil  from  whence  they  come,  taste, 
smell,  and  see." 

Reduce,  to  lead  back. 

Resent,  to  be  fully  sensible  of.  Resent- 
ment, grateful  recognition  of. 

Restive,  obstinate,  inclined  to  rest  or 
stand  still.  "To  turn  rusty"  (=resty) 
is  to  turn  obstinate. 

Retaliate,  to  give  back  benefits  as  well  as 
injuries. 

Room,  space,  place  at  table.    Luke  xiv.  8. 

Rummage,  to  make  room. 

Sad,  earnest,  dark-coloured  (of  clothes). 

Sash,  a  turban. 

Secure,  free  from  care.  Ben  Jonson  says : 
"  Men  may  securely  sin ;  but  safely, 
never." 

Sheen,  bright,  pure.  Connected  with 
thine. 

Shrew,  a  wicked  or  hurtful  person. 

Silly,  blessed. 

Sincerity,  absence  of  foreign  admixture. 

Soft,  sweetly  reasonable. 

Spices,  kinds — a  doublet  of  species.  (A 
grocer  in  French  is  called  an  epicier.) 

Starve,  to  die.  Chaucer  says,  "Jesus 
starved  upon  the  cross." 

Sycophant,  "a  fig-shower"  or  informer 
against  a  person  who  smuggled  figs.  Gr. 
suhon,  a  fig ;  and  phaino,  I  show. 

Table,  a  picture. 


Tarpaulin,  a  sailor ;  from  the  tarred 
canvas  suit  he  wore.  Now  shortened 
into  tar. 

Thews,  habits,  manners. 

Thought,  deep  sorrow,  auxiety.  Matthew 
vi.  25.  In  "Julius  Caesar,"  ii.  1.  187,  we 
find,  "  Take  thought,  and  die  for  Caesar." 

Trivial,  very  common.  Lat.  trivia,  a 
place  where  three  roads  meet. 

Tuition,  guardianship.  Lat.  Initio,  pro- 
tection. 

Uncouth,  unknown. 

Union,  oneness  ;  or  a  pearl  in  which  size, 
roundness,  smoothness,  purity,  lustre, 
were  united.  See  "Hamlet,"  v.  2.283. 
A  doublet  is  onion—  so  called  from  its 
shape. 

Unkind,  unnatural. 

Urbane,  living  in  a  city.  Lat.  urbs,  a 
city. 

Usury,  money  paid  for  the  use  of  a  thing. 

Varlet,  a  serving-man.  Low  Lat.  vassa- 
lettus,  a  minor  vassal.  Varlet  and  valet 
are  diminutives  of  vassal. 

Vermin  was  applied  to  noxious  animals 
of  whatever  size.  "  The  crocodile  is 
a  dangerous  vermin."  Lat.  vermis,  a 
worm. 

Villain,  a  farm-servant.  Lat.  villa,  a  farm. 

Vivacity,  pertinacity  in  living ;  longevity. 
Fuller  speaks  of  a  man  as  "  most  remark- 
able for  his  vivacity,  for  he  lived  140 
years." 

Wit,  knowledge,  mental  ability. 

Worm,  a  serpent. 

Worship,  to  consider  worth,  to  honour. 

Wretched,  wicked.  A.  S.  wrecca,  an  out- 
cast. 


PAKT    II. 

COMPOSITION,  PUNCTUATION,  PARAPHRASING 
AND  PROSODY 


N 


HINTS    ON    COMPOSITION. 

i.  Composition  is  the  art  of  putting  sentences  together. 

(i)  Any  one  can  make  a  sentence  ;  but  every  one  cannot  make  a  sen- 
tence that  is  both  clear  and  neat.  We  all  speak  and  write  sentences 
every  day  ;  but  these  sentences  may  be  neat  or  they  may  be  clumsy — 
they  may  be  pleasant  to  read,  or  they  may  be  dull  and  heavy. 

(ii)  Sir  Arthur  Helps  says :  "  A  sentence  should  be  powerful  in  its 
substantives,  choice  and  discreet  in  its  adjectives,  nicely  correct  in  its 
verbs  ;  not  a  word  that  could  be  added,  nor  one  which  the  most  fastid- 
ious would  venture  to  suppress  ;  in  order,  lucid  ;  in  sequence,  logical ; 
in  method,  perspicuous." 

2.  The  manner  in  which  we  put  our  sentences  together  is 
called  style.  That  style  may  be  good  or  bad;  feeble. or  vigorous; 
clear 'or  obscure.  The  whole  purpose  of  style,  and  of  studying 
style,  is  to  enable  us  to  present  our  thoughts  to  others  in  a  clear, 
forcible,  and  yet  graceful  way. 

"Style  is  but  the  order  and  the  movement  that  we  put  into  our 
thoughts.  If  we  bind  them  together  closely,  compactly,  the  style  be- 
comes firm,  nervous,  concise.  If  they  are  left  to  follow  each  other 
negligently,  the  style  will  be  diffuse,  slipshod,  and  insipid." — Buffon. 

3.  Good  composition  is  the  result  of  three  things  :  (i)  clear 
thinking ;  (ii)  reading  the  best  and  most  vigorous  writers ;  and 
(iii)  frequent  practice  in  writing,  along  with  careful  polishing  of 
what  we  have  written. 

(i)  We  ought  to  read  diligently  in  the  best  poets,  historians,  and 
essayists, — to  read  over  and  over  again  what  strikes  us  as  finely  or  nobly 
or  powerfully  expressed, — to  get  by  heart  the  most  striking  passages  in 
a  good  author.  This  kind  of  study  will  give  us  a  large  stock  of  appro- 
priate words  and  striking  phrases ;  and  we  shall  never  be  at  a  loss  for 
the  right  words  to  express  our  own  Bense. 


176  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

Ben  Jonson  says  :  "  For  a  man  to  write  well,  there  are  required 
three  necessaries :  let  him  read  the  best  authors  ;  observe  the  best 
speakers  ;  and  have  much  exercise  of  his  own  style." 

(ii)  "  My  mother  forced  me,  by  steady  daily  toil,  to  learn  long  chapters 
of  the  Bible  by  heart ;  as  well  as  to  read  it  every  syllable  through,  aloud, 
hard  names  and  all,  from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse,  about  once  a-year: 
and  to  that  discipline, — patient,  accurate,  and  resolute, — I  owe,  not  only 
a  knowledge  of  the  book,  but  much  of  my  general  power  of  taking  pains, 
and  the  best  part  of  my  taste  in  literature." — John  Buskin. 

(iii)  But,  though  much  reading  of  the  best  books  and  a  great  deal  of 
practice  in  composition  are  the  only  means  to  attain  a  good  and  vigorous 
style,  there  are  certain  directions — both  general  and  special — which  may 
be  of  use  to  the  young  student,  when  he  is  beginning. 


GEKEKAL   DIKECTIOKS. 

4.  We  must  know  the  subject  fully  about  which  we  are  going 

to  write. 

(i)  If  we  are  going  to  tell  a  story,  we  must  know  all  the  circumstances  •, 
the  train  of  events  that  led  up  to  the  result ;  the  relations  of  the  persons 
in  the  story  to  each  other  ;  what  they  said  ;  and  the  outcome  of  the 
whole  at  the  close.     These  considerations  guide  us  to 

Practical  Rule  I. — Draw  up  on  a  piece  of  paper  a  short 
skeleton  of  what  you  are  going  to  write  about 

(i)  Archbishop  Whately  says  :  <f  The  more  briefly  this  is  done,  so  that 
it  does  but  exhibit  clearly  the  heads  of  the  composition,  the  better  ;  be- 
cause it  is  important  that  the  whole  of  it  be  placed  before  the  eye  and 
mind  in  a  small  compass,  and  be  taken  in,  as  it  were,  at  a  glance  ;  and  it 
should  be  written,  therefore,  not  in  sentences,  but  like  a  table  of  contents. 
Such  an  outline  should  not  be  allowed  to  fetter  the  writer,  if,  in  the 
course  of  the  actual  composition,  he  find  any  reason  for  deviating  from 
his  original  plan, — it  should  serve  merely  as  a  track  to  mark  out  a  path 
for  him,  not  as  a  groove  to  confine  him." 

(ii)  Cobbett  says :  "  Sit  down  to  write  what  you  have  thought,  and 
not  to  think  what  you  shall  write." 

5.  Our  sentences  must  be  written  in  good  English. 

Good  English  is  simply  the  English  of  the  best  writers  ;  and  we  can 
only  learn  what  it  is  by  reading  the  books  of  these  writers.    Good  writers 


GENERAL  DIRECTIONS.  177 

of  the  previous  century  are  such  authors  as  Charles  Lamb,  Jane 
Austen,  Scott,  Coleridge,  Landor,  Macaulay,  Thackeray,  Dickens. 
Matthew  Arnold,  Froude,  Ruskin,  and  George  Eliot. 

6.   Our  sentences  must  be  written  in  pure  English. 

(i)  This  rule  forbids  the  use  of  obsolete  or  old-fashioned  words, 
such  as  erst,  peradventure,  hight,  beholden,  sojourn,  methinks,  etc. 

(ii)  It  forbids  also  the  use  of  slang  expressions,  such  as  awfully, 
jolly,  rot,  bosh,  bunk,  scoot,  see  with  half  an  eye,  etc. 

(iii)  It  forbids  the  employment  of  technical  terms,  unless  these  are 
absolutely  necessary  to  express  our  meaning  ;  and  this  is  sure  to  be  the 
case  in  a  paper  treating  on  a  scientific  subject.  But  technical  terms  in 
an  ordinary  piece  of  writing  (unless  with  brief  explanations),  are 
quite  out  of  place. 

(iv)  In  obedience  to  this  rule,  we  ought  also  carefully  to  avoid  the  use 
of  foreign  words  and  phrases.  Affectation  of  all  kinds  is  disgusting ; 
and  it  both  looks  and  is  affected  to  use  such  words  as  confrere,  raison 
d'itre,  amour  propre,  conge',  etc. 

(v)  This  recommendation  also  includes  the  Practical  Rule :  "  When 
an  English-English  (or  '  Saxon ')  and  a  Latin-English  word  offer  them- 
selves, we  had  better  choose  the  Saxon." 

(vi)  The  following  is  from  an  article  by  Leigh  Hunt :  "  In  the  Bible 
there  are  no  Latinisms  ;  and  where  is  the  life  of  our  language  to  be 
found  in  Buch  perfection  as  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible  ?  We  will 
venture  to  affirm  that  no  one  is  master  of  the  English  language  who  is  not 
well  read  in  the  Bible,  and  sensible  of  its  peculiar  excellences.  It  is  the 
pure  well  of  English.  The  taste  which  the  Bible  forms  is  not  a  taste 
for  big  words,  but  a  taste  for  the  simplest  expression  or  the  clearest 
medium  of  presenting  ideas.  Remarkable  it  is  that  most  of  the  sublimities 
in  the  Bible  are  conveyed  in  monosyllables.  For  example,  *  Let  there  be 
light :  and  there  was  light. '  Do  these  words  want  any  life  that  Latin 
could  lend  them  ?  .  .  .  The  best  styles  are  the  freest  from  Latinisms  ; 
and  it  may  be  almost  laid  down  as  a  rule  that  a  good  writer  will  never 
have  recourse  to  a  Latinism  if  a  Saxon  word  will  equally  serve  his  purpose. 
We  cannot  dispense  with  words  of  Latin  derivation;  but  there  should 
be  the  plea  of  necessity  for  resorting  to  them,  or  we  wrong  our  English." 

(vii)  Ab  the  same  time,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  we  very  often 
are  compelled  by  necessity  to  use  Latin  words.  Even  Leigh  Hunt,  in 
the  above  passage,  has  been  obliged  to  do  so  while  declaiming  against  it. 
This  is  apparent  from  the  number  of  words  printed  in  italics,  all  of 
which  are  derived  from  Latin.  This  is  most  apparent  in  the  phrase 
equally  serve  his  purpose,  which  we  could  not  now  translate  into  "  pure  " 
English. 


178 


COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 


7.  Our  sentences  must  be  written  in  accurate  English. 
That  is,  the  words  used  must  be  appropriate  to  the  sense  we 
wish  to  convey.  Accuracy  is  the  virtue  of  using  "the  right 
word  in  the   right  place." 

(i)  "  The  attempt  was  found  to  be  impracticable."  Now,  impracticable 
means  impossible  of  accomplishment.  Any  one  may  attempt  anything; 
carrying  it  out  is  a  different  thing.  The  word  used  should  have  been 
design  or  plan. 

(ii)  "The  veracity  of  the  statement  was  called  in  question."  Veracity 
is  the  attribute  of  a  person  ;  not  of  a  statement. 

(iii)  Accurate  English  can  only  be  attained  by  the  careful  study  of  the 
different  shades  of  meaning  in  words  ;  by  the  constant  comparison  of 
synonyms.     Hence  we  may  lay  down  the 


collection  of   synonyms,  and 
couple  (i)  in  a  dictionary,  and 


Practical   Rule  II. — Make  a 
compare  the  meanings  of  each 
(ii)  in  a  sentence. 

The  following  are  a  few,  the  distinctions  between  which  are 
very  apparent : — 


Abstain 

Forbear. 

Custom 

Habit. 

Active 

Diligent. 

Delay 

Defer. 

Aware 

Conscious. 

Difficulty 

Obstacle. 

Character 

Keputation. 

Strong 

Powerful. 

Circumstance 

Event. 

Think 

Believe. 

8.  Our  sentences  should  be  perfectly  clear.  That  is,  the 
reader,  if  he  is  a  person  of  ordinary  common-sense,  should  not 
be  left  for  a  moment  in  doubt  as  to  our  meaning. 

(i)  A  Roman  writer  on  style  says  :  "  Care  should  be  taken,  not  that 
the  reader  may  understand  if  he  will,  but  that  he  shall  understand 
whether  he  will  or  not." 

(ii)  Our  sentences  should  be  as  clear  as  "  mountain  water  flowing  over 
a  rock."     They  should  "economise  the  reader's  attention." 

(iii)  Clearness  is  gained  by  being  simple,  and  by  being  brief. 

(iv)  Simplicity  teaches  us  to  avoid  (a)  too  learned  words,  and  (b) 
roundabout  ways  of  mentioning  persons  and  things. 

(a)  We  ought,  for  example,  to  prefer — 
Abuse  to  Vituperation.  Neighbourhood  to  Vicinity. 

Begin  m  Commence.  Trustworthy       m  Reliable. 

Commence     h  Initiate.  Welcome  »  Reception. 


GENERAL  DIRECTIONS.  179 

(6)  We  ought  to  avoid  such  stale  and  hackneyed  phrases  as  the 
"Swan  of  Avon"  for  Shakespeare;  the  "Bard  of  Florence"  for 
Dante  ;  "  the  Great  Lexicographer "  for  Dr  Johnson. 

(v)  Brevity  enjoins  upon  us  the  need  of  expressing  our  meaning  in  as 
few  words  as  possible. 

Opposed  to  brevity  is  verbosity,  or  wordiness.     Pope  says — 

"  Words  are  like  leaves ;  and,  where  they  most  abound, 
Much  fruit  of  sense  beneath  is  rarely  found." 

(vi)  Dr  Johnson  says  :  "  Tediousness  is  the  most  fatal  of  all  faults.  * 

9.  Our  sentences  should  be  written  in  flowing  English, 
That  is,  the  rhythm  of  each  sentence  ought  to  be  pleasant  to 
the  ear,  if  read  aloud.     This  axiom  gives  rise  to  two  rules : — 

Practical  Rule  III — Write  as  you  would  speak  ! 

(i)  This,  of  course,  points  to  an  antecedent  condition — that  you  must 
be  a  good  reader.  Good  reading  aloud  is  one  of  the  chief  conditions  of 
good  writing.  "  Living  speech,"  says  a  philosophic  writer,  "  is  the  cor- 
rective of  all  style." 

Practical  Rule  IV. — After  we  have  w  ritten  our  piece  of  com- 
position, we  should  read  it  aloud  either  to  ourselves  or  to  some 
one  else. 

Thus,  and  thus  only,  shall  we  be  able  to  know  whether  each  sentence 

has  an  agreeable  rhythm. 

Practical  Rule  V. — "  Never  write  about  any  matter  you  do 
not  well  understand.  If  you  clearly  understand  all  about  your 
matter,  you  will  never  want  thoughts ;  and  thoughts  instantly 
become  words." — Cobbett. 

"  Seek  not  for  words  ;  seek  only  fact  and  thought, 
And  crowding  in  will  come  the  words,  unsought." — Horace. 

"  Know  well  your  subject ;  and  the  words  will  go 
To  the  pen's  point,  with  steady,  ceaseless  flow." — Pentland. 

10.  Our  sentences  should  be  compact. 

(i)  That  is,  they  ought  not  to  be  loose  collections  of  words,  but  firm, 
well-knit,  nervous  organisms. 

(ii)  A  sentence  in  which  the  complete  sense  is  suspended  till  the  close 
is  called  a  period.     Contrasted  with  it  is  the  loose  sentence. 


180  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION'    ETC. 

(a)  Loose  Sentence. — The  Puritans  looked  down  with  contempt  on 
the  rich  and  the  eloquent,  on  nobles  and  priests. 

(6)  Period. — On  the  rich  and  the  eloquent,  on  nobles  and  priests, 
the  Puritans  looked  down  with  contempt. 

(iii)  The  following  is  a  fine  example  of  a  loose  sentence  :  "  Notwith- 
standing his  having  gone,  in  winter,  to  Moscow,  where  he  found  the  cold 
excessive,  and  which  confined  him,  without  intermission,  six  weeks  to 
his  room,  we  could  not  induce  him  to  come  home."  This  no  more 
makes  a  sentence  than  a  few  cartloads  of  bricks  thrown  loosely  upon  the 
ground  constitute  a  house. 


EMPHASIS. 

One  object  in  style  is  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  in  a 
forcible  and  yet  agreeable  way  to  the  most  important  parts  of 
our  subject — in  other  words,  to  give  emphasis  to  what  is 
emphatic,  and  to  make  what  is  striking  and  important  strike  the 
eye  and  mind  of  the  reader.  This  purpose  may  be  attained  in 
many  different  ways;  but  there  are  several  easy  devices  that 
will  be  found  of  use  to  us  in  our  endeavour  to  give  weight  and 
emphasis  to  what  we  write.     These  are  : — 

1.  The  ordinary  grammatical  order  of  the  words  in  a  sentence 
may  be  varied ;  and  emphatic  words  may  be  thrown  to  the 
beginning  or  to  the  end  of  the  sentence.  This  is  the  device 
of  Inversion. 

Thus  we  have,  "Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord."  "  Jesus  I  know,  and  Paul  I  know :  but  who  are  ye  ? "  "  Some 
he  imprisoned  ;  others  he  put  to  death."  "  Go  he  must !  "  "  Do  it  he 
shall ! "  "  They  could  take  their  rest,  for  they  knew  Lord  Strafford 
watched.  Him  they  feared,  him  they  trusted,  him  they  obeyed."  "  He 
that  tells  a  lie  is  not  sensible  how  great  a  task  he  undertakes  ;  for,  to 
maintain  one,  he  must  invent  twenty  more."  In  the  last  sentence,  the 
phrase  to  maintain  one  gains  emphasis  by  being  thrown  out  of  its 
usual  and  natural  position.     But 

Caution  1. — Do  not  go  out  of  your  way  to  invert.  It  has  a 
look  of  affectation.  Do  not  say,  for  example,  "  True  it  is,"  or 
"Of  Milton  it  was  always  said,"  etc.  And  do  not  begin  an 
essay  thus  :  "Of  all  the  vices  that  disfigure  and  degrade,"  etc. 


EMPHASIS.  I81 

2.  The  Omission  of  Conjunctions  gives,  force  and  emphasis. 

Thus  Hume  writes :  "  He  rushed  amidst  them  with  his  sword 
drawn,  threw  them  into  confusion,  pushed  his  advantage,  and  gained  a 
complete  victory."     We  may  write  :  "You  say  this  ;  I  deny  it" 

3.  The  use  of  the  Imperative  Mood  gives  liveliness  and 
emphasis. 

Thus  we  find  the  sentence :  "  Strip  virtue  of  the  awful  authority 
she  derives  from  the  general  reverence  of  mankind,  and  you  rob  her  of 
half  her  majesty."  Here  strip  is  equal  to  If  you  strip  ;  but  is  much 
more  forcible. 

4.  Emphasis  is  also  gained  by  employing  the  Interrogative 
Form. 

(i)  Thus,  to  say  "  Who  does  not  hope  to  live  long  ? "  is  much  more 
forcible  and  lively  than  "All  of  us  hope  to  live  long." 

(ii)  This  is  a  well-known  form  in  all  impassioned  speech.  Thus,  in 
the  Bible  we  find  :  "  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?  And  the  prophets, 
do  they  live  for  ever  ? " 

5.  The  device  of  Exclamation  may  also  be  employed  to  give 
emphasis ;  but  it  cannot  be  frequently  used,  without  danger  of 
falling  into  affectation 

Thus  Shakespeare,  instead  of  making  Hamlet  say,  "  Man  is  a  wonder- 
ful piece  of  work,"  etc. — which  would  be  dull  and  flat— writes,  "What 
a  piece  of  work  is  man  !  "  etc. 

6.  Emphasis  may  be  gained  by  the  use  of  the  device  of 
Periphrasis. 

(i)  Thus,  instead  of  saying  "John  built  this  house,"  or  "This  house 
was  built  by  John,"  we  can  say  :  "  It  was  John  who  built  this  house  ;" 
"  It  was  no  other  than  John  who,"  etc 

7.  Repetition  is  sometimes  a  powerful  device  for  producing 
emphasis ;  but,  if  too  frequently  employed,  it  becomes  a  tire- 
some mannerism. 

(i)  Macaulay  is  very  fond  of  this  device.  He  says  :  "  Tacitus  tells  a 
fine  story  finely,  but  he  cannot  tell  a  plain  story  plainly.  He  stimulates 
till  stimulants  lose  their  power."  Again  :  "  He  aspired  to  the  highest 
— above  the  people,  above  the  authorities,  above  the  laws,  above  his 
country." 


182  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

(ii)  Its  effect  in  poetry  is  sometimes  very  fine  : — 

"  By  foreign  hands  thy  dying  eyes  were  closed : 
By  foreign  hands  thy  decent  limbs  composed ; 
By  foreign  hands  thy  humble  grave  adorned  ; 
By  strangers  honoured,  and  by  strangers  mourned.'* 

8.  The  device  of  Suspense  adds  to  the  weight  and  emphasis 
of  a  statement;  it  keeps  the  attention  of  the  reader  on  the 
stretch,  because  he  feels  the  sense  to  be  incomplete. 

(i)  The  suspense  in  the  following  sentence  gives  a  heightened  idea  of 
the  difficulty  of  travelling :  "  At  last,  with  no  small  difficulty,  and 
after  much  fatigue,  we  came,  through  deep  roads,  storms  of  wind  and 
rain,  and  bad  weather  of  all  kinds,  to  our  journey's  end." 

(ii)  This  device  is  frequent  in  poetry.  Thus  Keats  opens  his  "  Hy- 
perion "  in  this  way  : — 

"  Deep  in  the  shady  sadness  of  a  vale, 
Far  sunken  from  the  healthy  breath  of  morn, 
Far  from  the  fiery  noon  and  eve's  one  star — 
Sat  grey-haired  Saturn,  quiet  as  a  stone." 

Here  the  verb  is  kept  to  the  last  line. 

9.  Antithesis  always  commands  attention,  and  is  therefore  a 
powerful  mode  of  emphasising  a  statement.  But  antithesis  is 
not  always  at  one's  command ;  and  it  must  not  be  strained  after. 

Macaulay  employs  this  device  with  great  effect.  He  has :  "  The 
Puritan  hated  bear-baiting,  not  because  it  gave  pain  to  the  bear,  but 
because  it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators."  Swift  was  very  fond  of  it. 
Thus  he  says  :  "  The  two  maxims  of  a  great  maD  at  court  are,  always  to 
keep  his  countenance,  and  never  to  keep  his  word."  Dr  Johnson  has 
this  sentence  :  "  He  was  a  learned  man  among  lords,  and  a  lord  among 
learned  men."     "  He  twice  forsook  his  party ;  his  principles  never." 

10.  A  very  sharp,  sudden,  and  unexpected  antithesis  is  called 
an  Epigram. 

(i)  Thus  Lord  Bacon,  speaking  of  a  certain  procession  in  Rome,  says  that 
"  The  statues  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  were  conspicuous  by  their  absence." 
Macaulay  says  of  the  dirt  and  splendour  of  the  Russian  Ambassadors : 
"They  came  to  the  English  Court  dropping  pearls  and  vermin." 

(ii)  The  following  are  additional  instances  of  truths  put  in  a  very 
striking  and  epigrammatic  way:  "Verbosity  is  cured  by  a  large  vocab- 
ulary" (because  when  you  have  a  large  stock  of  words,  you  will  be 
able  to  choose  the  fittest).  "  We  ought  to  know  something  of  every- 
thing, and  everything  of  something."  "  He  was  born  of  poor  but  dis- 
honest parents."     "When  you  have  nothing  to  say,  say  it."     "He, 


'  DISTINCTNESS   OF  STYLE.  183 

had  nothing  to  do,  and  he  did  it"  "The  better  is  the  enemy  of  the 
good."  "  One  secret  in  education,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  "  is  to  know 
how  wisely  to  lose  time."  "Make  haste  slowly."  "They  did  nothing 
in  particular  ;  and  did  it  very  welL" 

(iii)  But  no  one  should  strain  after  such  a  style  of  writing.     Such  an 
attempt  would  only  produce  smartness,  which  is  a  fatal  vice. 


DISTINCTNESS   OF   STYLE. 

1.  One  great  secret  of  a  good  and  striking  style  is  the  art  of 
Specification. 

Professor  Bain  gives  us  an  excellent  example  of  a  vague  and  gen- 
eral, as  opposed  to  a  distinct  and  specific  style  : — 

(a)  Vague.  — "  In  proportion  as  the  manners,  customs,  and  amuse- 
ments of  a  nation  are  cruel  and  barbarous,  the  regulation  of  their 
penal  codes  will  be  severe." 

(6)  Specific. — "According  as  men  delight  in  battles,  bull-fights,  and 
combats  of  gladiators,  so  will  they  punish  by  hanging,  burning, 
and  crucifying." 

2.  Specification  or  distinctness  of  style  may  be  attained  in 
two  ways :  (i)  by  the  use  of  concrete  terms ;  and  (ii)  by  the 
use  of  detail. 

3.  A  concrete  or  particular  term  strikes  both  the  feelings 
and  imagination  with  greater  force  than  an  abstract  or  general 
term  can  do. 

(i)  Let  Us  make  a  few  contrasts  : — 

Abstract.  Concrete. 

Quadruped.  Horse. 

Building  materials.  Bricks  and  mortar. 

Old  age.  Grey  hairs. 

Warlike  weapons.  Sword  and  gun. 

Rich  and  poor.  The  palace  and  the  cottage 

A  miserable  state.  Age.  ache,  and  penury. 

"  I  have  neither  the  necessaries  "  I  have  not  a  crust  of  bread, 

of  life,  nor  the  means  of  pro-  nor  a  penny  to  buy  one." 

curing  them." 

(ii)  Campbell  says  :  "  The  more  general  the  terms  are,  the  picture  is 
the  fainter;  the  more  special,  the  brighter."  "They  sank  like  lead  in 
the  mighty  waters  "  is  more  forcible  than  "  they  sank  like  metal." 


184  COMPOSITION,    PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

4.  Details  enable  the  reader  to  form  in  his  mind  a  vivid  pic- 
ture of  the  event  narrated  or  the  person  described ;  and,  before 
beginning  to  write,  we  ought  always  to  draw  up  a  list  of  such 
details  as  are  both  striking  and  appropriate  —  such  details  as 
tend  to  throw  into  stronger  relief  the  chief  person  or  event. 

The  following  is  a  good  example  from  the  eloquent  writer  and 
profound  thinker  Edmund  Burke.  He  is  speaking  of  the  philanthro- 
pist Howard  : — 

"  He  has  visited  all  Europe  to  dive  into  the  depths  of  dungeons ;  to  plunge 
into  the  infections  of  hospitals ;  to  survey  the  mansions  of  sorrow  and  pain ; 
to  take  the  gauge  and  dimensions  of  misery,  depression,  and  contempt ;  to 
remember  the  forgotten,  to  attend  to  the  neglected,  to  visit  the  forsaken,  and 
to  compare  and  collate  the  distresses  of  all  men  in  all  countries." 


GEKEKAL    CAUTIONS. 

1.  Avoid  the  use  of  threadbare  and  hackneyed  expressions. 
Leave  them  to  people  who  are  in  a  hurry,  or  to  penny-a-liners. 

Instead  of  Write 

At  the  expiration  of  four  years.  At  the  end,  etc. 

Paternal  sentiments.  The  feelings  of  a  father. 

Exceedingly  opulent.  Very  rich. 

Incur  the  danger.  Run  the  risk. 

Accepted  signification.  Usual  meaning. 

Extreme  felicity.  Great  happiness. 

A  sanguinary  engagement.  A  bloody  battle. 

In  the  affirmative.  Yes. 

2.  Be  very  careful  in  the  management  of  pronouns. 

(i)  Cobbett  says :  "  Never  put  an  it  upon  paper  without  thinking 
well  what  you  are  about.  When  I  see  many  it's  in  a  page,  I  always 
tremble  for  the  writer."  See  also  2  Kings,  xix.  35  :  "And  when  they 
arose  early  in  the  morning,  behold  they  were  all  dead  corpses." 

(ii)  Bolingbroke  has  the  sentence :  "  They  were  persons  of  very  moder- 
ate intellects,  even  before  they  were  impaired  by  their  passions."  The 
last  they  ought  to  be  these. 

(iii)  The  sentence,  "  He  said  to  his  patient  that  if  he  did  nob  feel 
better  in  half  an  hour,  he  thought  he  had  better  return,"  is  a  clumsy 
sentence,  but  clear  enough  ;  because  we  oan  easily  see  that  it  is  the 
patient  that  is  to  take  the  advice. 


SPECIAL  CAUTIONS.  185 

3.  Be  careful  not  to  us©  mixed  metaphors. 

(i)  The  following  is  a  fearful  example  :  "  This  is  the  arrow  of  convic- 
tion, which,  like  a  nail  driven  in  a  sure  place,  strikes  its  roots  downwards 
into  the  earth,  and  bears  fruit  upwards." 

(ii)  Sir  Boyle  Roche,  an  Irish  member,  began  a  speech  thus :  "  Mr 
Speaker,  I  smell  a  rat,  I  see  him  floating  in  the  air ;  but,  mark  me, 
I  shall  yet  nip  him  in  the  bud."  A  similar  statement  is  :  "  Lord  Kim- 
berley  said  that  in  taking  a  very  large  bite  of  the  Turkish  cherry  the 
way  had  been  paved  for  its  partition  at  no  distant  day." 

4.  Be  simple,  quiet,  manly,    frank,    and  straightforward  in 
your  style,  as  in  your  conduct.     That  is  :  Be  yourself  ! 


SPECIAL    CAUTIONS. 

1.  Avoid  tautology. 

Alison  says :  "  It  was  founded  mainly  on  the  entire  monopoly  of 
the  whole  trade  with  the  colonies."  Here  entire  and  whole  are  tauto- 
logical ;  for  monopoly  means  entire  possession,  or  possession  of  the  whole. 
"  He  appears  to  enjoy  the  universal  esteem  of  all  men."  Here  universal 
is  superfluous. 

2.  Place  the   adverb   as  near  the  word  it  modifies  as   you 

can, 

"  He  not  only  found  her  employed,  but  also  pleased  and  tranquil" 
The  not  only  belongs  to  employed,  and  should  therefore  go  with  it. 

3.  Avoid  circumlocution 

"Her  Majesty,  on  reaching  Perth,  partook  of .  breakfast."  This 
should  be  simply  breakfasted.  But  the  whole  sentence  should  be  recast 
into  :  "  On  reaching  Perth,  the  Queen  breakfasted  in  the  station." 

4.  Take  care  that  your  participles  are  attached  to  nouns,  and 
that  they  do  not  run  loose. 

"Alarmed  at  the  news,  the  boat  was  launched  at  once."  Here 
alarmed  can,  grammatically,  agree  with  boat  only.  The  sentence 
should  be :  "  The  men,  alarmed  at  the  news,  launched  their  boat  at 
once. " 

5.  Use  a  present  participle  as  seldom  as  possible. 

(i)  "  I  have  documents  proving  this  "  is  not  so  strong  as  "  to  prove 
this." 


186  COMPOSITION,   TUNCTUATION,   ETC.    ' 

(ii)  "He  dwelt  a  long  time  on  the  advantages  of  swift  steamers,  thus 
accounting  for  the  increase,"  etc.  The  phrase  "thus  accounting  "  is  very 
loose.     Every  sentence  ought  to  be  neat,  firm,  and  compact. 

6.  Remember  that  -who  is  very  often  equivalent  to  and 

he  or  for  he ;  while  that  introduces  a  merely  adjectival  clause. 

"  I  heard  it  from  the  doctor,  who  told  the  gardener  that- works -for- 

the-college."      Here  who  =  and  he;   and  that  introduces  the  adjectival 

sentence. 

7.  Do  not  change  the  Subject  of  your  Sentence. 

(i)  Another  way  of  putting  this  is :  "  Preserve  the  unity  of  the 
sentence ! " 

(ii)  "Archbishop  Tillotson  died  in  this  year.  He  was  exceedingly 
beloved  both  by  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  who  nominated  Dr 
Tenison  to  succeed  him."  The  last  statement  about  nominating  another 
bishop  has  no  natural  connection  with  what  goes  before.  % 

(iii)  "  After  we  came  to  anchor,  they  put  me  on  shore,  where  I  was 
welcomed  by  all  my  friends,  who  received  me  with  the  greatest  kind- 
ness." This  sentence  ought  to  be  broken  into  two.  The  first  should 
end  with  on  shore;  and  the  second  begin  "  Here  I  was  met  and,  etc." 

8.  See  that  who  or  which  refers  to  its  proper  antecedent. 

"  Shakespeare  married  Anne  Hathaway,  the  daughter  of  a  yeoman, 
to  whom  he  left  his  second-best  bed."  Here  the  grammatical  antece- 
dent is  yeoman;  but  the  historical  and  sense-antecedent  is  certainly 
daughter. 

9.  Do  not  use  and  which  for  which. 

(i)  "  I  bought  him  a  very  nice  book  as  a  present,  and  which  cost  me 
ten  shillings."     The  and  is  here  worse  than  useless. 

(ii)  If  another  which  has  preceded,  of  course  and  which  is  right. 

10.  Avoid  exaggerated  or  too  strong  language. 

Unprecedented,  most  extraordinary,  incalculable,  boundless,  extremely, 
awfully,  scandalous,  stupendous,  should  not  be  used  unless  we  know  that 
they  are  both  true  and  appropriate. 

11.  Be    careful   not   to   mix  up  dependent   with   principal 
sentences. 

"He  replied  that  he  wished  to  help  them,  and  intended  to  give 
orders  to  his  servants."  Here  it  is  doubtful  whether  intended  is  co- 
ordinate with  replied  or  with  wished.  If  the  former  is  the  case*  then 
we  ought  to  say  he  intended. 


PUNCTUATION.  187 

12.  Be  very  careful  about  the  right  position  of  each  phrase 
or  clause  in  your  sentence. 

The  following  are  curious  examples  of  dislocations  or  misplace- 
ments :  "  A  piano  for  sale  by  a  lady  about  to  cross  the  Channel  in  an 
oak  case  with  carved  ^egs."  "  I  believe  that,  when  he  died,  Cardinal 
Mezzofanti  spoke  at  least  fifty  languages."  "  He  blew  out  his  brains 
after  bidding  his  wife  good-bye  with  a  gun. "  "  Erected  to  the  memory 
of  John  Phillips,  accidentally  shot,  as  a  mark  of  affection  by  his 
brother."  "  The  Board  has  resolved  to  erect  a  building  large  enough 
to  accommodate  500  students  three  storeys  high."  "Mr  Carlyle  has 
taught  us  that  silence  is  golden  in  thirty -seven  volumes." 


PUNCTUATION. 

1.  Certain  signs,  called  points,  are  used  in  sentences  to  mark 
off  their  different  parts,  and  to  show  the  relation  of  each  part  to 
the  organic  whole. 

(i)  Putting  in  the  right  points  is  called  punctuation,  from  the  Latin 
punctum,  a  point.     From  the  same  word  come  punctual  and  punctuality. 

2.  These  points  are  the  full  stop,  the  colon,  the  semicolon, 
the  dash,  the  comma,  and  the  points  of  interrogation  and 
admiration. 

3.  The  full  stop  (.)  or  period  marks  the  close  of  a  sentence. 

4.  The  colon  (:)  introduces  (i)  a  new  statement  that  may 
be  regarded  as  an  after-thought ;  or  (ii)  it  introduces  a  cata- 
logue of  things ;  or  (iii)  it  introduces  a  formal  speech. 

(The  word  colon  is  Greek,  and  means  limb  or  member.) 

(i)  "  Study  to  acquire  a  habit  of  accurate  expression  :  no  study  is 
more  important." 

(ii)  "  Then  follow  excellent  parables  about  fame  :  as  that  she  gathereth 
strength  in  going  ;  that  she  goeth  upon  the  ground,  and  yet  hideth  her 
head  in  the  clouds  ;  that  in  the  day-time  she  sitteth  in  a  watch-tower, 
and  flieth  most  by  night." — Bacon. 

(iii)  "  Mr  Wilson  rose  and  said  :  '  Sir,  I  am  sorry,'  etc." 

5.  The  semicolon  is  employed  when,  for  reasons  of  sound  or 
of  sense,  two  or  more  simple  sentences  are  thrown  into  one. 

(Semicolon  is  Latin-Greek,  and  means  half  a  colon. ) 

(i)  "  In  the  youth  of  a  state,  arms  do  flourish  :  in  the  middle  age  of 


188  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

a  state,  learning ;  and  then  both  of  them  together  for  a  time  ;  in  the 
declining  age  of  a  state,  mechanical  arts  and  merchandise." — Bacon. 

(ii)  Learn  from  the  birds  what  foods  the  thickets  yield  ; 
Learn  from  the  beasts  the  physic  of  the  field  ; 
Thy  arts  of  building  from  the  bee  receive  ; 
Learn  of  the  mole  to  plough,  the  worm  to  weave." — Pope. 

6.  The  dash  is  used  (i)  to  introduce  an  amplification  or  ex- 
planation ;  and  (ii)  two  dashes  are  often  employed  in  place  of 
the  old  parenthesis. 

(i)  "  During  the  march  a  storm  of  rain,  thunder,  and  lightning  came 
on — a  storm  such  as  is  only  seen  in  tropical  countries." 

(ii)  "  Eibbons,  buckles,  buttons,  pieces  of  gold-lace — any  trifles  he  had 
worn — were  stored  as  priceless  treasures." 

7.  The  comma  is  used  to  indicate  a  strong  pause,  either  of 
sense  or  of  sound. 

(i)  It  is  true  that  the  comma  is  the  weakest  of  all  our  stops ;  but 
there  are  many  pauses  which  we  ought  to  make  in  reading  a  sentence 
aloud  that  are  not  nearly  strong  enough  to  warrant  a  comma. 

(ii)  It  is  better  to  understop  rather  than  to  overstop.  For  example, 
the  last  part  of  the  last  sentence  in  the  paragraph  above  might  have 
been  printed  thus  :  "  there  are  many  pauses,  which  we  ought  to  make, 
in  reading  a  sentence  aloud,  that  are  not  nearly  strong  enough  to  war- 
rant a  comma."  This  is  the  old-fashioned  style  ;  but  such  sprinkling  of 
commas  is  not  at  all  necessary. 

(iii)  Two  things  are  all  that  are  required  to  teach  us  the  use  of  a 
comma :  (a)  observation  of  the  custom  of  good  writers  ;  and  (6)  careful 
consideration  of  the  sense  and  build  of  our  own  sentences. 

(iv)  The  following  are  a  few  special  uses  of  the  comma : — 

i 
(a)  It  may  be  used  in  place  of  and : — 

"  We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

(6)  After  an  address  :  "John,  come  here." 

(c)  After  certain  introductory  adverbs,  as  however,  at  length,  at 
last,  etc.     "  He  came,  however,  in  time  to  catch  the  train." 

8.  The  point  of  interrogation  (?)  is  placed  at  the  end  of  a 
question. 

9.  The  point  of  admiration  (!)  is  employed  to  mark  a  state- 
ment which  calls  for  surprise  or  wonder ;  but  it  is  now  seldom 
used. 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH.  189 


FIGURES   OP   SPEECH. 

1.  The  mind  naturally  tends,  especially  when  in  a  state  of 
excitement,  to  the  use  of  what  is  called  figurative  language. 
It  is  as  if  we  called  upon  all  the  things  we  see  or  have  seen  to 
come  forward  and  help  us  to  express  our  overmastering  emotions. 
In  fact,  the  external  shows  of  nature  are  required  to  express  the 
internal  movements  of  the  mind ;  the  external  world  provides  a 
language  for  the  internal  or  mental  world.  Hence  we  find  all 
language  full  of  figures  of  speech.  Though  we  do  not  notice 
them  at  the  time,  we  can  hardly  open  our  mouths  without  using 
them.     As  Butler  says  in  his  famous  poem  : — 

"  For  Hudibras, — he  could  not  ope 
His  mouth,  but  out  there  flew  a  trope."  1 

We  speak  of  a  town  being  stormed;  of  a  clear  head ;  a  hard 
heart;  winged  words;  glowing  eloquence;  virgin  snow;  a  torrent 
of  words;  the  thirsty  ground;  the  angry  sea.  We  speak  of 
God's  Word  being  a  light  to  our  feet  and  a  lamp  to  our  path. 

2.  This  kind  of  language  has  been  examined,  classified,  and 
arranged  under  heads ;  and  the  chief  figures  of  speech  are  called 
Simile,  Metaphor,  Personification,  Allegory,  Synecdoche, 
Metonymy,  and  Hyperbole. 

3.  A  Simile  is  a  comparison  that  is  limited  to  one  point. 
"Jones  fought  like  a  lion."  Here  the  single  point  of  likeness 
between  Jones  and  the  lion  is  the  bravery  of  the  fighting  of 
each. 

(Simile  comes  from  the  Latin  similis,  like.) 

(i)  "  His  spear  was  like  the  mast  of  a  ship."  "  His  salte*  teres  striken 
down  like  rain,"  says  Chaucer.  "Apollo  came  like  the  night,"  says 
Homer.  "His  words  fell  soft,  like  snow  upon  the  ground,"  are  the 
words  used  by  Homer  in  speaking  of  Ulysses.  "It  stirs  the  heart 
like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet"  said  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  speaking  of 
the  ballad  of  "Chevy  Chase."  Tennyson  admirably  compares  a  miller 
covered  with  flour  to  "a  working-bee  in  blossom-dust," 


1  A  trope — from  Greek  trSpos,  a  turning.  A  word  that  has  been  turned 
from  its  ordinary  and  primary  use.  From  the  same  root  come  tropic* 
and  tropical. 


190  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

4.  A  Metaphor  is  a  simile  with  the  words  like  or  as  left  out. 
Instead  of  saying  "Roderick  Dhu  fought  like  a  lion,"  we  use  a 
metaphor,  and  say  "  lie  was  a  lion  in  the  fight." 

(Metaphor  is  a  Greek  word  meaning  transference.) 

(i)  All  language,  as  we  have  seen,  is  full  of  metaphors.  Hence  lan- 
guage has  been  called  "fossil  poetry."  Thus,  even  in  very  ordinary 
prose,  we  may  say,  "the  wish  is  father  to  the  thought ;  "  "the  news 
was  a  dagger  to  his  heart;"  or  we  speak  of  the  fire  of  passion;  of  a 
ray  of  hope  ;  &  flash  of  wit ;  a  thought  striking  us  ;  and  so  on. 

(ii)  By  frequent  use,  and  by  forgetfulness,  many  metaphors  have  lost 
their  figurative  character.  Thus  we  use  the  words  provide  (to  see 
beforehand),  edify  (to  build  up),  express  (to  squeeze  out),  detect  (to 
unroof),  ruminate  (to  chew  the  cud),  without  the  smallest  feeling  of 
their  metaphorical  character. 

(iii)  We  must  never  mix  our  metaphors.  It  will  not  do  to  say  :  "  In 
a  moment  the  thunderbolt  was  on  them,  deluging  the  country  with 
invaders."  "  I  will  now  embark  upon  the  feature  on  which  this  question 
mainly  hinges." 

(iv)  Metaphors  and  similes  may  be  mixed.     Thus  Longfellow  : — 

Metaohor     /  ^ne  ^a^  *s  ^one  »  ano-  *ne  darkness 
"      '"  \      Falls  from  the  wings  of  night, 

q.    .,  j  As  a  feather  is  wafted  downward 

oimue' 1      From  an  eagle  in  his  flight. 

(v)  A  metaphor  is  a  figure  in  which  the  objects  compared  are  treated 
by  the  mind  as  identical  for  the  time  being.  A  simile  simply  treats 
them  as  resembling  one  another  ;  and  the  mind  keeps  the  two  carefully 
apart. 

5.  Personification  is  that  figure  by  which,  under  the  influence 
of  strong  feeling,  we  attribute  life  and  mind  to  impersonal  and 
inanimate  things. 

(i)  Thus  we  speak,  in  poetic  and  impassioned  language,  of  pale  Fear  ; 
gaunt  Famine ;  green-eyed  Jealousy ;  and  white-handed  Hope.  The  morn- 
ing is  said  to  laugh;  the  winds  to  whisper;  the  oaks  to  sigh ;  and  the 
brooks  to  prattle. 

(ii)  Milton,  in  the  '  Paradise  Lost,'  ix.  780,  thus  describes  the  fall  of 
Eve:— 

"  So  saying,  her  rash  hand  in  evil  hour 
Forth  reaching  tr>  the  fruit,  she  plucked,  she  ate  ! 
Earth  felt  the  wound  ;  and  Nature,  from  her  seat, 
Sighing  through  all  her  works,  gave  signs  of  woe 
That  all  was  lost." 


FIGURES  OF  SPEECH.  191 

Shelley's  '  Cloud '  is  one  long  personification. 

(iii)  When  the  personified  object  is  directly  addressed,  the  figure  is 
called  Apostrophe.  Thus  we  have,  "  0  Death,  where  is  thy  sting  ? 
0  Grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ? " 

6.  An  Allegory  is  a  continuous  personification  in  the  form  of 
a  story. 

(i)  The  genus  is  personification  ;  the  differentia,  a  story  ;  and  the 
species  is  an  allegory. 

(ii)  Milton's  *  Death  and  Sin,"  in  the  tenth  book  of  the  '  Paradise 
Lost,'  is  a  short  allegory.  Spenser's  'Faerie  Queene'  and  Bunyan's 
*  Pilgrim's  Progress  '  are  long  allegories. 

(iii)  A  short  allegory  is  called  a  Fable. 

7.  Synecdoche'  is  that  figure  of  speech  by  which  a  part  is 
put  for  the  whole.  Thus  we  say,  in  a  more  striking  fashion, 
bread  instead  of  food;  a,  cut-throat  for  a  murderer;  fifty  sail  for 
fifty  ships;  all  hands  at  work. 

(i)  Lear,  in  the  height  of  his  mad  rage  against  his  daughters,  shouts, 
"I  abjure  all  roofs  I " 

(ii)  The  name  of  the  material — as  a  part  of  the  whole  production — is 
sometimes  used  for  the  thing  made :  as  cold  steel  for  the  sword ;  the 
marble  speaks ;  the  canvas  glows. 

8.  Metonymy  is  that  figure  of  speech  by  which  a  thing  is 
named,  not  with  its  own  name,  but  by  some  accompaniment 
Thus  we  say,  the  crown  for  the  king;  the  siwrd  for  physical 
force. 

(The  word  metonymy  is  a  Greek  word  meaning  change  of  names. ) 

We  write   the  ermine  for  the   bench   of  judges;    the   mitre  for   the 

bishops;  red  tape  for  official  routine;  a  long  purse  for  a  great  deal  of 

money ;  the  bottle  for  habits  of  drunkenness. 

9.  Hyperbole*  or  Exaggeration  is  a  figure  by  which  much 
more  is  said  than  is  literally  true.  This  is  of  course  the  re- 
sult of  very  strong  emotion. 

(i)  Milton  says  : — 

"  So  frowned  the  mighty  combatants,  that  hell 
Grew  darker  at  their  frown." 

(ii)  Scott,  in  '  Kenilworth,'  has  this  passage  :  "  The  mind  of  England's 
Elizabeth  was  like  one  of  those  ancient  Druidical  monuments  called 


192  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

rocking-stones.  The  finger  of  Cupid,  boy  as  he  is  painted,  could  put 
her  feelings  in  motion  ;  but  the  power  of  Hercules  could  not  have  de- 
stroyed their  equilibrium." 

10.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  chief  of  the.  above 
statements : — 

1.  A  Figure    of   Speech  employs  a  vivid  or  striking  image 

of  something  without   to   express  a  feeling   or   idea 
within. 

2.  A  Simile  uses  an  external  image  with  the  word  like. 

3.  A  Metaphor  uses  the  same  image  without  the  word  like. 

4.  A  Personification  is  a  metaphor  taken  from  a  person  or 

living  being. 

5.  An  allegory  is  a  continuous  personification. 


PARAPHRASING. 

1.  Paraphrasing  is  a  kind  of  exercise  that  is  not  without 
its  uses.  These  uses  are  chiefly  two :  (i)  to  bind  the  learner's 
attention  closely  to  every  word  and  phrase,  meaning  and  shade 
of  meaning;  and  (ii)  to  enable  the  teacher  to  see  whether 
the  learner  has  accurately  and  fully  understood  the  passage. 
But  no  one  can  hope  to  improve  on  the  style  of  a  poem  by 
turning  the  words  and  phrases  of  the  poet  into  other  language ; 
the  change  made  is  always — or  almost  always — a  change  for  the 
worse. 

2.  *  Passages  from  good  prose  writers  are  sometimes  given  out 
to  paraphrase,  but  most  often  passages  from  poetical  writers. 
The  reason  of  this  is  that  poetry  is  in  general  much  more  highly 
compressed  than  prose,  and  hence  the  meaning  is  sometimes 
obscure,  for  want  of  a  little  more  expansion.  The  following 
lines  by  Sir  Henry  Wotton,  the  Provost  of  Eton  College,  are 
a  good  example  of  much  thought  compressed  within  a  little 
space : — 


PARAPHRASING.  193 


THE   HAPPY   LIFE. 

1.  How  happy  is  he  born  and  taught 
That  serveth  not  another's  will — 
Whose  armour  is  his  honest  thought, 
And  simple  truth  his  utmost  skill ! 

2.  Whose  passions  not  his  masters  are, 
Whose  soul  is  still  prepared  for  death— 
Not  tied  unto  the  worldly  care 

Of  public  fame  or  private  breath  ! 

3.  Who  envies  none  that  chance  doth  raise, 
Or  vice ;  who  never  understood 

How  deepest  wounds  are  given  by  praise ; 
Nor  rules  of  state,  but  rules  of  good ; 

4.  Who  hath  his  life  from  humours  freed, 
Whose  conscience  is  his  strong  retreat ; 
Whose  state  can  neither  flatterers  feed, 
Nor  ruin  make  accusers  great 

5.  Who  God  doth  late  and  early  pray 
More  of  His  grace  than  gifts  to  lend  j 
And  entertains  the  harmless  day 
With  a  well-chosen  book  or  friend  : — 

6.  This  man  is  freed  from  servile  bands 
Of  hope  to  rise,  or  fear  to  fall — 
Lord  of  himself,  though  not  of  lands  ; 
And,  having  nothing,  yet  hath  all. 

3.  Let  us  try  now  to  paraphrase  these  lines — that  is,  to  de- 
velop the  thought  by  the  aid  of  more  words.  But,  though  we 
are  obliged  to  use  more  words,  we  must  do  our  utmost  to  find  and 
bo  employ  the  most  fitting.  "We  must  not  merely  throw  down 
a  mass  of  words  and  phrases,  and  leave  the  reader  to  make  his 
own  selection  and  to  grope  among  them  for  the  meaning. 

1.  How  happy,  by  birth  as  well  as  by  education,  is  the  man  who  is  not 
obliged  to  be  a  slave  to  the  will  of  another — whose  only  armour  is  hia 
honesty  and  simple  goodness,  whose  best  and  utmost  skill  lies  in  plain 
straightforwardness. 

2.  How  happy  is  the  man  who  is  not  the  slave  of  his  own  passions, 
whose  soul  is  always  prepared  for  death,  who  is  not  tied  to  the  world 
or  the  world's  opinion  by  anxiety  about  his  public  reputation  or  the 
tattle  of  individuals. 


194  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

3.  Happy,  too,  because  he  envies  no  man  who  has  been  raised  to  rank 
by  accident  or  by  vicious  means  ;  because  he  never  understood  the  sneer 
that  stabs  while  it  seems  to  praise  ;  because  he  cares  nothing  for  rules 
of  expediency  or  of  policy,  but  thinks  only  of  what  is  good  and  right. 

4.  Who  has  freed  himself  from  obedience  to  humours  and  to  whims, 
whose  conscience  is  his  sure  stronghold  ;  whose  rank  is  not  exalted 
enough  to  draw  flatterers,  or  to  tempt  accusers  to  build  their  own 
greatness  upon  his  fall. 

5.  Who,  night  and  morning,  asks  God  for  grace,  and  not  for  gifts  ; 
and  spends  his  day  in  the  study  of  a  good  book  or  conversation  with 
a  thoughtful  friend. 

6.  This  man  is  freed  from  the  slavery  of  hope  and  fear — the  hope  of 
rising,  the  fear  of  falling — lord,  not  of  lands,  but  of  himself ;  and  though 
without  wealth  or  possessions,  yet  having  all  that  the  heart  of  man  need 
desire. 


THE    GRAMMAR    OF    VERSE,    OR    PROSODY. 

1.  Verse  is  the  form  of  poetry  •  and  Prosody  is  the  part  of 
Grammar  which  deals  with  the  laws  and  nature  of  verse. 

(i)  Verse  comes  from  the  Latin  versa,  turned.  Oratio  versa  was 
"  turned  speech  " — that  is,  when  the  line  came  to  an  end,  the  reader  or 
writer  or  printer  had  to  begin  a  new  line.  It  is  opposed  to  oratio 
prorsa,  which  means  "  straight-on  speech  " — whence  our  word  prose.  A 
line  in  prose  may  be  of  any  length  ;  a  line  in  verse  must  be  of  the  length 
which  the  poet  gives  to  it. 

(ii)  It  is  of  importance  for  us  to  become  acquainted  with  the  laws  of 
verse.  First,  because  it  enables  us  to  enjoy  poetry  more.  Secondly,  it 
enables  us  to  read  poetry  better — and  to  avoid  putting  an  emphasis  on 
a  syllable,  merely  because  it  is  accented.  Thirdly,  it  shows  us  how  to 
write  verse  ;  and  the  writing  of  verse  is  very  good  practice  in  composition 
— as  it  compels  us  to  choose  the  right  phrase,  and  makes  us  draw  upon 
our  store  of  words  to  substitute  and  to  improve  here  or  there. 

2.  Verse  differs  from  prose  in  two  things :  (i)  in  the  regular 
recurrence  of  accents;  and  (ii)  in  the  proportion  of  un 
accented  to  accented  syllables. 

(i)  Thus,  in  the  line 

In  an'swer  noughf  could  An'gus  speak', 
the  accent  occurs  regularly  in  every  Becond  syllable. 


THE   GRAMMAR  OF  VERSE,   OR  PROSODY.  195 

(ii)  But,  in  the  line 

Mer'rily,  mer'rily,  shall'  we  live  now', 

the  accent  not  only  comes  first,  but  there  are  two  unaccented  syllables 
for  every  one  that  is  accented  (except  in  the  last  foot). 

3.  Every  English  word  of  more  than  one  syllable  has  an 
accent  on  one  of  its  syllables. 

(i)  Begin',  commend',  attack'  have  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable, 
(ii)  JIap'py,  la'dy,  welcome  have  the  accent  on  the  first  syllable. 

4.  English  verse  is  made  up  of  lines ;  each  line  of  verse  con- 
tains a  fixed  number  of  accents;  each  accent  has  a  fixed 
number  of  unaccented  syllables  attached  to  it. 

(i)  Let  us  take  these  lines  from  '  Marmion '  (canto  v.)  • — 

Who  loves'  |  not  more'  |  the  night'  |  of  June7 
Than  dull'  |  Decern'  |  ber's  gloom'  |  of  noon'  ? 

Each  line  here  contains  four  accents  ;  the  accented  syllable  comes  last ; 
each  accented  syllable  has  one  unaccented  attached  to  it. 

(ii)  Now  let  us  compare  these  lines  from  T.  Hood's  "  Bridge  of  Sighs  "  : 

Touch'  her  not  |  scom'fully, 
Think'  of  her  |  mourn'fully. 

Each  line  here  contains  two  accents  ;  the  accented  syllable  comes  first ; 
and  each  accented  syllable  has  two  unaccented  syllables  attached  to  it. 

5.  One  accented  syllable  +  one  or  two  unaccented,  taken 
together,  is  called  a  foot.      A  foot  is  the  unit  of  metre. 

Let  x  stand  for  an  unaccented,  and  a  for  an  accented  syllable. 

6.  One  accented  preceded  by  one  unaccented  syllable  is 
called  an  Iambus.  Its  formula  is  xa. — One  accented  syllable 
followed  by  one  unaccented  is  called  a  Trochee.  Its  formula 
is  ax. 

(i)  The  following  are  iambuses  :  Perhaps' ;  condemn' ;  compel' ;  with- 
out';  career'. 

(ii)  The  following  are  trochees  :  Gen' tie ;  rWer;  la'dy  ;  ra'ven  ;  twmlble. 

(iii)  The  following  verse  is  made  up  of  four  iambuses — that  is,  it  is 
iambic  verse : — 

Twere  long',  |  and  need'  |  less,  here'  |  to  tell' 
How  to  my  hand  these  papers  felL 


196  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

(iv)  The  following  verse  is  made  up  of  four  trochees — that  is,  it  is 
trochaic  : — 

In'  his  |  cham'ber,  |  weak'  and  |  dy'ing 
Was  the  Norman  baron  lying. 

(v)  lam'  |  bics  march'  |  from  short'  |  to  long7. 

(vi)  Tro'chee  |  trips'  from  [  long'  to  |  short'  —  |  . 

7.  One  accented  syllable  preceded  by  two  unaccented  is 
called  an  Anapaest.  Its  formula  is  xxa. — One  accented  syl- 
lable followed  by  two  unaccented  is  called  a  Dactyl.  Its 
formula  is  axx. 

(i)  The  following  are  anapaests  :  Serenade' ;  disappear' ;  comprehend' ; 
intercede'. 

(ii)  The  following  are  dactyls  :  Hap'pily;  mer'rily;  sim'Uar ;  bil'lowy, 

(Hi)  The  following  lines  are  in  anapaestic  verse  : — 

I  am  mon'  |  arch  of  all'  1 1  survey', 
My  right  there  is  none  to  dispute. 

(iv)  With  a  leap'  |  and  a  bound'  |  the  swift  an'  |  apaests  throng'  |  . 

(v)  The  following  are  in  dactylic  verse  : — 

Can'non  to  |  righf  of  them  | 
Can'non  to  |  left'  of  them  |. 

(a)  The  word  dactyl  comes  from  the  Greek  dahtiilos,  a  finger. 
For  a  finger  has  one  long  and  two  short  joints. 

(b)  The  word  anapaest  comes  from  two  Greek  words :  paio, 
strike,  and  ana,  back  ;  because  it  is  the  reverse  of  a  dactyl. 

8.  The  Anapaest  belongs  to  the  same  kind  or  system  of  verse 
as  the  Iambus  ;  because  the  accented  syllable  in  each  comes  last. 
— The  Dactyl  belongs  to  the  same  kind  or  system  of  verse  as 
the  Trochee ;  because  the  accented  syllable  in  each  comes  first. 

(i)  Hence  anapaests  and  iambuses  may  be  mixed  (as  in  "My  right'  | 
there  is  none'  |  to  dispute'  |  ");  and  so  may  dactyls  and  trochees  (as  in 
"  Hark'  to  the  |  sum'mons  |  "). 

(ii)  But  we  very  seldom  see  a  trochee  introduced  into  an  iambic  line  ; 
or  an  iambus  into  a  trochaic — except  in  the  first  foot. 

9.  An  accented  syllable  with  one  unaccented  syllable  on  each 
side  of  it  is  called  an  Amphibrach.     Its  formula  is  xax. 

The  word  amphibrach  comes  from  two  Greek  words  :  amphi,  on  both 
Bides ;  and  brachus,  short.     (Compare  amphibious.) 


THE  GRAMMAR  OF  VERSE,  OR  PROSODY.  197 

(i)  The  following  are  amphibrachs  :  Despairing ;  aVmight'y;  tremend- 
ous; deceitful. 

(ii)  The  following  is  an  amphibrachic  line  : — 

There  came'  to  |  the  beach'  a  |  poor  ex'ile  |  of  E'rin  |. 

10.  A  verse  made  up  of  iambuses  is  called  Iambic  Verse; 
of  trochees,  Trochaic ;  of  anapaests,  Anapaestic ;  and  of  dactyls, 
Dactylic. 

11.  A  verse  of  three  feet  is  called  Trimeter;  of  four  feet, 
Tetrameter ;  of  five  feet,  Pentameter ;  and  of  six  feet,  Hex- 
ameter. 

(i)  "We  find  the  prefixes  of  these  words  in  Triangle ;  Tetrarch  (a  ruler 
over  a  fourth  part) ;  Pentateuch  (the  Jive  books  of  Moses) ;  and  Hexagon 
(a  figure  with  six  corners  or  angles). 

12.  By  much  the  most  usual  kind  of  verse  in  English  is 
Iambic  Verse. 

(i)  Iambic  Tetrameter  (4xa)  is  the  metre  of  most  of  Scott's  poems  ; 
of  Coventry  Patmore's  "Angel  in  the  House";  of  Gay's  Fables,  and 
many  other  poems  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

(ii)  Iambic  Pentameter  (5xa)  is  the  most  common  line  in  English 
verse.  There  are  probably  more  than  a  thousand  iambic  pentameter 
lines  for  one  that  there  exists  of  any  other  kind.  Iambic  Pentameter  is 
the  verse  of  Chaucer,  of  Shakespeare,  of  Milton,  of  Dryden,  of  Pope,  and 
of  almost  all  our  greater  English  poets. 

13.  Rhymed  Iambic  Pentameter  is  called  Heroic  Verse ;  un- 
rhymed,  it  is  called  Blank  Verse. 

(i)  Any  unrhymed  verse  may  be  called  blank — such  as  the  verse  em- 
ployed by  Longfellow  in  his  "Hiawatha" — but  the  term  is  usually 
restricted  to  the  unrhymed  iambic  pentameter. 

(ii)  Blank  verse  is  the  noblest  of.  all  verse.  It  seems  the  easiest  to 
write  ;  it  is  the  most  difficult.  It  is  the  verse  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton, 
and  of  most  of  our  great  dramatists. 

14.  Iambic  Trimeter  consists  of  three  iambuses;  and  its 
formula  is  3xa. 

The  king7  |  was  on'  |  his  throne';  | 
His  sa'  |  traps  thronged'  |  the  hall';  | 
A  thou'  |  sand  bright'  |  lamps  shone'  | 
On  thaf  |  high  fes'  |  tival'.  | 

There  is  very  little  of  this  kind  of  verse  in  English.    . 


198  COMPOSITION,  PUNCTUATION,  ETC. 

15.  Iambic  Tetrameter  consists  of  four  iambuses;  and  its 
formula  is  4xa. 

The  fire,'  |  with  well'  |  dried  logs'  |  supplied,'  | 
"Went  roar7  |  ing  up'  |  the  chim'  |  ney  wide';  | 
The  huge'  |  hall-ta'  |  ble's  oak'  |  en  face'  | 
Scrubbed  till'  |  it  shone,'  |  the  day'  |  to  grace/  | 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  this  verse  in  English ;  and  most  of  it 
is  by  Scott. 

16.  Iambic  Tetrameter  with  Iambic  Trimeter  in  alternate 
lines — the  second  and  fourth  rhyming — is  called  Ballad  Metre. 
When  used,  as  it  often  is,  in  hymns,  it  is  called  Service  Metre. 

They  set  him  high  upon  a  cart;  =  4xa 

The  hangman  rode  below;  =  3xa 
They  drew  his  hands  behind  his  back,  =  4xa 

And  bared  his  noble  brow.  =  3xa 

This  is  the  metre  of  Macaulay's  'Lays  of  Ancient  Eome/  of 
Scott's  'Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,'  and  many  other  poems. 
Scott  mixes  frequently,  but  at  quite  irregular  intervals,  the 
iambic  trimeter  with  the  iambic  tetrameter ;  and  this  he  called 
the  "light-horse  gallop  of  verse." 

Front,  flank,  and  rear,  the  squadrons  sweep  =  4xa 
To  break  the  Scottish  circle  deep,  =  4xa 

That  fought'  |  around'  |  their  king.' =  3 xa 

17.  Iambic  Pentameter  consists  of  five  iambuses;  and  its 
formula  is  5xa. 

(i)  The  following  is  rhymed  iambic  pentameter  : — 

True  wit'  |  is  na'  |  ture  to'  |  ad  van'  |  tage  dressed,'  |  =  5xa 

What  oft'  |  was  thought,'  |  but  ne'er'  |  so  well'  |  expressed/  |  =  5xa 

(ii)  The  following  is  unrhymed  iambic  pentameter  : — 

You  all'  |  doknow'  |  this  man'  |  tie  ;  V  |  remera'  |  ber=5xa 
The  first'  |  time  ev'  j  er  Cass'  |  ar  puf  |  it  on'.|=5xa. 

The  first  extract  is  from  Pope's  "Essay  on  Criticism";  the 
second  from  Shakespeare's  "Julius  Caesar." 

18.  Iambic  Hexameter  consists  of  six  iambuses;  and  its 
formula  is  6xa, 


THE   GRAMMAK   OF  VERSE,  OR  PROSODY.  199 

(i)  The  following  is  from  Drayton's  "  Polyolbion  "  : — 

Upon  the  Midlands  now  the  industrious  muse  doth  fall,  |  =6xa 
That  shire  which  we  the  heart  of  England  well  may  call.  |  =  6xa 

The  objection  to  this  kind  of  verse  is  its  intolerable  monotony. 
It  pretends  to  be  hexameter ;  but  it  is  indeed  simply  two  tri- 
meter verses  printed  in  one  long  line.  The  monotony  comes 
from  the  fact  that  the  pause  is  always  in  the  middle  of  the  line. 
There  is  very  little  of  this  kind  of  verse  in  English.  The  line 
of  6xa  is  also  called  an  Alexandrine,  and  is  used  to  close  the 
long  stanza  employed  by  Spenser. 

19.  Trochaic  Tetrameter  consists  of  four  trochees ;  and  its 
formula  is  4 ax. 

(i)  The  following  is  rhymed  trochaic  tetrameter  : — 

When  the  heathen  trumpet's  clang- 1= 4 ax 
Round  beleaguered  Chester  rang,  -|=4ax 
Veiled  nun  and  friar  gray-  |  =  4ax 
Marched  from  Bangor's  fair  abbaye -  |=4ax 

It  will  be  noticed  that  each  line  has  a  syllable  wanting  to 
make  up  the  four  complete  feet.  But  the  missing  syllable  is 
only  an  unaccented  syllable;  and  the  line  contains  four  ac- 
cents. (The  above  extract  is  from  "The  Monks  of  Bangor's 
March,"  by  Scott.) 

(ii)  The  following  is  unrhymed  trochaic  tetrameter  : — 

Then  the  |  little  |  Hia  |  watha  |  =4 ax 
Learned  of  |  ev'ry  |  bird  the  |  language,  |=4ax 
Learned  their  |  names  and  |  all  their  |  secrets,  |  =  4ax 
How  they  |  built  their  |  nests  in  |  summer,  |  =  4ax 
Where  they  |  hid  them  |  selves  in  |  winter,  |  =  4ax 
Talked  with  |  them  when  |  e'er  he  |  met  them,  |  =  4ax 
Called  them  |  "Hia  |  watha's  |  Chickens."  |  =  4ax 

It  will  be  observed  that,  in  the  above  lines  from  Longfellow's 
"  Hiawatha,"  each  trochee  is  complete  ;  and  this  is  the  case 
throughout  the  whole  of  this  poem.  "  Hiawatha  "  is  the  only 
long  poem  in  the  language  that  is  written  in  unrhymed  trochees. 

20.  Trochaic  Octometer  consists  of  eight  trochees;  and  its 
formula  is  8  ax. 

(i)  The  chief  example  of  it  that  we  have  is  Tennyson's  poem  of 
"Locksley  Hall":- 


200  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,   ETC. 

Com'rades,  |  leave'  roe  |  here'  a  |  lit' tie,  |  while'  as  |  yet'  'tis  |  early  |  morn'-|=8ax 
Leave'  me  |  here',  and,  |  when'  you|wanf  me,  |  sound'  up|on'  the|bu'gle|horn'-|  =  8ax 

(ii)  There  is  a  syllable  wanting  in  each  line  of  "Locksley  Hall"  ;  but 
it  is  only  an  unaccented  syllable.     Each  line  consists  of  eight  accents. 

21.  Anapaestic   Tetrameter  consists  of  four  anapaests;   and 
its  formula  is  4xxa. 

(i)  There  is  very  little  anapaestic  verse  in  English  ;  and  what  little 
there  exists  is  written  in  tetrameter. 

(ii)  The  following  lines,  from  "  Macgregors'  Gathering,"  by  Scott,  is 
in  anapsestic  verse  : — 

The  moon's'  |  on  the  lake',  |  and  the  mist's'  |  on  the  brae',  |  =  4xxa 
And  the  clan'  |  has  a  name'  |  that  is  name'  |  less  by  day'.  |  =4xxa 

(iii)  It  will  be  observed  that  the  first  line  begins  with  an  iambus. 
This  is  admissible  ;  because  an  iambus  and  an  anapaest,  both  having  the 
accented  syllable  last,  belong  to  the  same  system. 

22.  Dactylic  Dimeter  consists  of  two  dactyls  J  and  its  formula 
is  2axx. 

(i)  A  well  -  known  example  is  Tennyson's  "  Charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade." 

Can'non  to  |  right'  of  them,  |  2axx 
Can'non  to  |  left'  of  them,  |  2axx 
Can'non  be  |  hind'  them,  -  |  2axx 

Vol'leyed  and  |  thun'dered.  -  |  2a xx 

(ii)  It  will  be  observed  that  the  last  two  lines  want  a  syllable  to  make 
up  the  two  dactyls.    Such  a  line  is  said  to  be  =  2axx- (minus). 

(iii)  Or  we  may  say  that  the  last  foot  is  a  trochee  ;  for  a  trochee  and 
a  dactyl  can  go  together  in  one  line,  both  belonging  to  the  same  system 
— both  having  their  accented  syllable  first. 

23.  Dactylic  Tetrameter  consists  of  four  dactyls ;  and  its  for- 
mula is  4axx. 

(i)  Bishop  Heber's  hymn  is  one  of  the  best  examples  : — 

Bright'est  and  |  best'  of  the  |  sons'  of  the  |  morn'ing. 
(ii)  The  last  foot  here  again  is  a  trochee, 
(iii)  There  is  very  little  of  this  kind  of  verse  in  English  poetry. 

24  Amphibrachic  Tetrameter  consists  of  four  amphibrachs ; 
and  its  formula  is  4xax. 


THE  GRAMMAR  OF  VERSE,  OR  PROSODY.      201 

(i)  Campbell's  well-known  poem  is  a  good  example  : — 
There  came'  to  |  the  beach'  a  |  poor  ex'ile  |  of  Krin. 
(ii)  There  are  very  few  examples  in  English  of  this  kind  of  verse. 

25.  The  following  lines  by  Coleridge  give  both  examples  and 
descriptions  of  the  most  important  metres  explained  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraphs.  It  must  be  observed  that  Coleridge  uses  the 
term  long  for  accented;  and  short  for  unaccented  syllables: — 

Tro'chee  |  trips'  from  |  long'  to  |  short' —  | 

From  long  to  long  in  solemi,  sort, 

Slow  spon  |  dee1  stalks  ||  strong*  foot,  yet  |  ill'  able 

E'ver  to  |  come'  up  with  |  dac'tyl  tri  |  syl'lable  |  . 

lam'  |  bics  march'  |  from  sho'rt  |  to  long'  |  ; 

With  a  leap'  |  and  a  bound'  |  the  swift  an'  |  apaests  throng'  |  ; 

One  syl'la  |  ble  long'  with  |  one  short'  at  |  each  side —  | 

Amphi'brach  |  ys  hastes'  with  |  a  stately  |  stride. 

26.  A  verse  with  a  syllable  ovei  and  above  the  number  of 

feet  of  which  it  consists  is  called  Hypermetrical. 

(i)  Thus,  Coleridge  has,  in  his  "  Ancient  Mariner  " — 
Day  af  |  ter  day,  |  day  af  |  ter  day,  | 

We  stuck :  |  nor  breath  |  nor  mo  j  tion,    (hyper) 
As  id  |  le  as  |  a  paint  |  ed  ship  | 

Upon  |  a  paint  |  ed  o  |  cean.    (hyper) 

Here  the  syllables  tion  and  cean  are  over  from  the  iambic  trimetei 
verse,  and  the  line  is  therefore  said  to  be  hypermetrical. 

27.  A  verse  with  a  syllable  wanting  to  the  number  of  feet 
of  which  it  consists  is  said  to  be  defective. 

(i)  Thus,  in  Scott's  "  Monks  of  Bangor  "— 

Slaughtered  |  down'  by  |  heath' en  |  blade'-  |  4ax- 
Ban'gor's  |  peace' ful  |  monks'  are  |  laid'.  -  )  4ax- 

we  find  a  syllable  wanting  to  each  line.  But  that  syllable  is  an  un- 
accented one  ;  and  the  verse  consists  of  four  trochees  minus  one  syllable, 
or  4ax-. 

(ii)  Caution ! — Some  persons  confuse  the  defective  with  the  hyper- 
metrical line.     Thus,  in  the  verses — 

Shall'  I  |  wasf  ing  |  in'  de  |  spair',  -  | 
Die'  be  |  cause  a  |  wom'an's  |  fair'  ?  -  | 

the  syllable  spair  is  not  hypermetrical  An  unaccented  syllable  is 
wanting  to  it ;  and  the  lines  are  4 ax  defective  or  minus. 

1  A  spondee  consists  of  two  long  or  accented  syllables.  It  is  a  foot  not 
employed  in  English  ;  but  it  exists  in  the  two  words  amen  and  farewell. 


202  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION,  ETC, 


KHYME. 

28.  Rhyme  has  been  denned  by  Milton  as  the  "jingling 
sound  of  like  endings."  It  may  also  be  defined  as  a  corre- 
spondence in  sound  at  the  ends  of  lines  in  poetry. 

(i)  Rhyme  is  properly  spelled  rime.  The  word  originally  meant  num- 
ber;  and  the  Old  English  word  for  arithmetic  was  rime-craft.  It 
received  its  present  set  of  letters  from  a  confusion  with  the  Greek  word 
rhythm,  which  means  a  flowing. 

(ii)  Professor  Skeat  says  "  it  is  one  of  the  worst-spelt  words  in  the 
language."  "It  is,"  he  says,  "impossible  to  find  an  instance  of  the 
spelling  rhyme  before  1550."     Shakespeare  generally  wrote  rime. 

29.  No  rhyme  can  be  good  unless  it  satisfies  four  conditions. 
These  are  : — 

1.  The   rhyming   syllable  must  be   accented.      Thus   ring' 

rhymes  with  singly  but  not  with  think'ing. 

2.  The  vowel  sound  must  be  the  same — to  the  ear,  that  is ; 

though  not  necessarily  to  the  eye.     Thus  lose  and  close 
are  not  good  rhymes. 

3.  The  final  consonant  must  be  the  same.     [Mix  and  tricks 

are  good  rhymes ;  because  x  =  ks.) 

4.  The  preceding  consonant  must  be  different. 

Beat  and  feet ;  jump  and  pump  are  good  rhymes. 

30.  The  English  language  is  very  poor  in  rhymes,  when 
compared  with  Italian  or  German.  Accordingly,  half-rhymes 
are  admissible,  and  are  frequently  employed. 

The  following  rhymes  may  be  used  : — 

Sun.  Love.  Allow.  Ever,  Taste. 

Gone.  Move.  Bestow.  River.  Past. 


THE  CiESURA,  203 


THE    CESURA, 

31.  The  rhythm  or  musical  flow  of  verse  depends  on  the 
varied  succession  of  phrases  of  different  lengths.  But,  most  of 
all,  it  is  upon  the  Caesura,  and  the  position  of  the  Caesura, 
that  musical  flow  depends. 

The  word  caesura  is  a  Latin  word,  and  means  a  cutting. 

32.  The  Caesura  in  a  line  is  the  rest  or  halt  or  break  or 
pause  for  the  voice  in  reading  aloud.  It  is  found  in  short  as 
well  as  in  long  lines. 

(i)  The  following  is  an  example  from  the  short  lines  of  '  Marmion ' 

(vi.  332)  :— 

1J  More  pleased  that  ||  in  a  barbarous  age 
2J  He  gave  rude  Scotland  ||  Virgil's  page, 

1  Than  that  ||  beneath  his  rule  he  held 

2  The  bishopric  ||  of  fair  Dunkeld. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  takes  care  to  vary  the 
position  of  the  caesura  in  each  line — sometimes  having  it  after  14  feet, 
sometimes  after  2  ;  and  so  on. 

(ii)  The  following  is  an  example  from  the  long  lines  of  the  "  Lycidas  " 
of  Milton : — 

2    Now,  Lycidas,  ||  the  shepherds  weep  no  more  ; 
1    Henceforth  ||  thou  art  the  genius  of  the  shore 
8    In  thy  large  recompense,  |j  and  shalt  be  good 
2J  To  all  that  wander  ||  in  that  perilous  flood. 

Milton,  too,  is  careful  to  vary  the  position  of  his  caesura  ;  and  most  of 
the  music  and  much  of  the  beauty  of  his  blank  verse  depend  upon  the 
fact  that  the  caesura  appears  now  at  the  beginning,  now  at  the  middle, 
now  at  the  end  of  his  lines  ;  and  never  in  the  same  place  in  two  con- 
secutive verses. 

(iii)  Of  all  the  great  writers  of  English  verse,  Pope  is  the  one  who 
places  the  caesura  worst  —  worst,  because  it  is  almost  always  in  the 
same  place.  Let  us  take  an  example  from  his  "Rape  of  the  Lock" 
(canto  L)  : — 

2  The  busy  sylphs        ||  surround  their  darling  care, 

2  These  set  the  head,    |  and  these  divide  the  hair ; 

2  Some  fold  the  sleeve,  fl  whilst  others  plait  the  gown  ; 

2  And  Betty's  praised  |  for  labours  not  her  own. 

And  so  he  goes  on  for  thousands  upon  thousands  of  verses.  The  symbol 
of  Pope's  caesura  is  a  straight  line  ;  the  symbol  of  Milton's  is  "  the  line 
of  beauty  " — a  line  of  perpetually  varying  and  harmonious  curves. 


204  COMPOSITION,   PUNCTUATION;   ETC. 


THE    STANZA. 
33.  A  Stanza  is  a  group  of  rhymed  lines. 

The  word  comes  from  an  old  Italian  word,  stantia,  an  abode. 

34  Two  rhymed  lines  are  called  a  couplet ;  and  this  may  be 
looked  upon  as  the  shortest  kind  of  stanza 

(i)  The  most  usual  couplet  in  English  consists  of  two  rhymed  iambic 
pentameter  lines.     This  is  called  the  "  heroic  couplet." 

35.  A  stanza  of  three  rhymed  lines  is  called  a  triplet. 

(i)  A  very  good  example  is  to  be  found  in  Tennyson's  poem  of  "  The 
Two  Voices,"  which  consists  entirely  of  triplets  : — 

"  Whatever  crazy  sorrow  saith, 
No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 
Has  ever  truly  longed  for  death." 

36.  A  stanza  of  four  rhymed  lines — of  which  the  first  (some- 
times) rhymes  with  the  third,  and  the  second  (always)  with 
the  fourth — is  called  a  quatrain. 

(i)  The  ordinary  ballad  metre  consists  of  quatrains — that  is,  four 
lines,  two  of  iambic  tetrameter,  and  two  of  iambic  trimeter. 

(ii)  A  quatrain  of  iambic  pentameters  is  called  Elegiac  Verse.  The 
best  known  example  is  Gray's  "  Elegy  in  a  Country  Churchyard." 

37.  A  stanza  of  six  lines  is  called  a  sextant. 

(i)  There  are  many  kinds.  One  is  used  in  Hood's  "  Dream  of  Eugene 
Aram,"  which  is  written  in  4xa  and  3xa  ;  the  second,  fourth,  and  sixth 
lines  rhyming. 

(ii)  Another  in  Whittier's  "  Barclay  of  Ury,"  which  has  the  first  and 
second  lines,  the  third  and  sixth,  the  fourth  and  fifth,  rhyming  with 
each  other. 

(iii)  Another  in  Lowell's  "Yussouf,"  which  has  the  first  and  third 
lines,  the  second  and  fourth,  and  the  fifth  and  sixth  rhyming. 

38.  A  stanza  of  eight  lines  is  called  an  octave,  or  ottava 
rima. 

(Pronounced  ottahva  reema.) 

39.  A  stanza  of  nine  lines  is  called  the  Spenserian  stanza, 
because  Edmund  Spenser  employed  it  in  his  "  Faerie  Queene." 


THE  STANZA.  205 

(i)  The  first  eight  lines  of  this  stanza  are  in  5xa;  the  last  line,  in  6xa. 
(ii)  The  rhymes  run  thus  :  abab  ;  bcbcc. 

40.  A  short  poem  of  fourteen  iambic  pentameter  lines — with 
the  rhymes  arranged  in  a  peculiar  way — is  called  a  sonnet. 

(i)  This  is  a  form  which  has  been  imported  into  England  from  Italy, 
where  it  was  cultivated  by  many  poets — the  greatest  among  these  being 
Dante  and  Petrarch,  both  of  them  poets  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  best  English  sonnet-writers  are  Milton,  Wordsworth,  and  Mrs 
Browning. 

(ii)  The  sonnet  consists  of  two  parts — an  octave  (of  eight  lines),  and 
a  sestette  (of  six).  The  rhymes  in  the  octave  are  often  varied,  being 
sometimes  abba,  acca:  those  in  the  sestette  are  sometimes  a  be,  abc, 
or  ababec. 

(iii)  Shakespeare's  "  Sonnets  "  are  not  formed  on  the  Italian  model, 
and  can  hardly  be  called  sonnets  at  all.  They  are  really  short  poems  of 
three  quatrains,  ending  in  each  case  with  a  rhymed  couplet. 

(iv)  The  following  is  Wordsworth's  sonnet  on  "  The  Sonnet  "  :— 

'Scorn  not  the  Sonnet;  critic,  you  have  frowned  a 

Mindless  of  its  just  honours :  with  this  key  b 

Shakspeare  unlocked  his  heart ;  the  melody  b 

Of  this  small  lute  gave  ease  to  Petrarch's  wound ;  a 

A  thousand  times  this  pipe  did  Tasso  sound;  a 

With  it  Camoens  soothed  an  exile's  grief;  c 

The  sonnet  glittered  a  gay  myrtle  leaf  c 

SAmid  the  cypress  with  which  Dante  crowned  a 

tis  visionary  hrow ;  a  glow-worm  lamp  d 

It  cheered  mild  Spenser,  called  from  fairyland  e 

'  To  struggle  through  dark  ways  ;  and  when  a  damp  d 

Fell  round  the  path  of  Milton,  in  his  hand  e 

I  The  thing  became  a  trumpet,  whence  he  blew  / 

^Soul-animating  strains— alas,  too  few  ! :'  / 


EXEECISES. 


EXERCISE  I.  (The  Alphabet,  p.  5). 

1.  Show  the  difference  between  a  vowel  and  a  consonant ;  say 
which  are  the  vowels  in  the  following  words :  young,  wonder,  worth, 
hypercritical,  abstemious,  yell,  iota ;  and  name  the  diphthongs,  if 
any,  in  continuous,  idea,  shoeing,  join;  oasis,  rea-on,  porous,  variety, 
spontaneity. 

2.  How  are  consonants  classified  ?  Select  the  dentals  and  gutturals 
from  the  following  words :  dog,  gate,  gentle,  truth,  thank,  hog, 
gymnastic,  pneumatic,  drink,  conquered;  and  select  the  palatals  and 
labials  from  the  following  words :  Job,  Benjamin,  archiepiscopate, 
bdellium,  method,  psalm,  yacht. 

3.  Distinguish  between  mutes  and  spirants  ;  and  show  which  are 
the  dental  and  which  the  palatal  spirants  in  scissors,  rush,  shawl, 
zealously,  laziness,  azimuth,  zephyr,  harass. 

4.  Change  as  many  as  you  can  of  the  following  into  corresponding 
sharp  sounds :  bad,  dove,  dig,  bag,  bathe,  gad,  beg,  Jude,  dug,  Jove, 
gab,  jug  ;  and  reduce  the  following  sharp  sounds  to  flat :  pack,  buck, 
cat,  set,  trick,  chick,  pet. 

5.  What  are  the  characteristics  of  a  true  alphabet?  Prove  our 
alphabet  faulty  ;  and  say  which  are  the  redundant  letters. 

EXERCISE  II.  (Nouns,  p.  9). 

1.  How  are  nouns  classified ?  Define  abstract  nouns;  and  classify 
the  nouns  in  the  following  : — 

(a)  "Come  forth  into  the  light  of  things, 

Let  nature  be  your  teacher." — Wordsworth. 

(6)   "  Welcome,  learn'd  Cicero  !  whose  blessed  tongue  and  wit 
Preserves  Rome's  greatness  yet." — Cowley. 

(c)  "  All  in  the  Downs  the  fleet  lay  moor'd." — Dibdin. 

(d)  "  Poictiers  and  Cressy  tell, 

When  most  their  pride  did  swell." — Drayton. 

(e)  Parliament  was  prorogued.  The  troop  returned  to  barracks. 
The  jury  disagreed. 

2.  Make  abstract  nouns  of  true,  noble,  young,  king,  patient,  man, 
lord,  intrude,  rogue,  slave,  poor,  domain,  catechise,  exemplify. 

207 


208  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  III.  (Nouns,  p,  9). 

Classify  the  nouns  in  the  following  :— 

(a)  "  Young  Henry  met  the  foe  with  pride  ; 

Jane  followed,  fought !  ah,  hapless  story  ! 
In  man's  attire,  by  Henry's  side, 

She  died  for  love,  and  he  for  glory." — T.  Dibdin. 

(b)  "  Though  I  fly  to  Istamboul, 

Athens  holds  my  heart  and  soul." — Byron. 

(c)  "  The  time  I've  lost  in  wooing, 

In  watching  and  pursuing 

The  light  that  lies 

In  woman's  eyes, 
Has  been  my  heart's  undoing." — T.  Moore. 

(d)  "Far  from  the  madding  crowd's  ignoble  strife, 

Their  sober  wishes  never  learn'd  to  stray." — Gray. 

EXERCISE  IV.  (Gender,  p.  11). 

1 .  Define  gender  ;  and  give  the  different  ways  in  which  gender  is 
marked. 

2.  Give  the  gender  of  Londoner,  chief,  sehor,  actor,  debtor,  sailor, 
kitten,  sheep,  charity,  knave,  moon,  ant,  spouse,  bee,  laundress. 

3.  Give  the  masculine  of  spinster,  doe,  slut,  ewe,  bride,  baxter,  lass, 
czarina,  vixen  ;  and  the  feminine  of  widower,  patron,  drake,  marquis, 
gander,  friar,  sire,  benefactor,  executor,  nephew,  earl. 

EXERCISE  V.  (Number,  p.  15). 

1.  Define  number  ;  and  give  the  chief  ways  of  forming  plurals. 

2.  Supply  the  plurals  of  child,  chief,  doth,  calf,  horse,  Dutchman, 
German,  trout,  fly,  solo,  monkey,  index,  boot,  foot,  House  of  Parliament, 
mouse,  lily,  turkey,  gas,  box,  genius,  canto,  penny,  crisis,  Miss  Foote, 
lady -help,  relief,  dye,  buoy,  spoonful. 

3.  Write  the  singulars  of  kine,  sheep,  radii,  series,  data,  dice, 
analyses,  cherubim ;  and  distinguish  between  pease  and  peas,  brothers 
and  brethren,  dies  and  dice,  geniuses  and  genii. 

4.  Justify  the  use  of  each  of  the  following  :  memorandums,  indices, 
bandits,  funguses,  seraphs  ;  and  state  the  number  of  each  of  the  nouns 
in  the  following  : — 

(a)  "The  audience  were  too  mucn  interested." — Scott. 

(b)  "  The  garrison  only  bestow  a  few  bolts  on  it." — Id. 

(c)  "The  House  of  Lords  were  so  much  influenced." — Hume. 

(d)  "All  his  tribe  are  blind." — Bunyan. 


EXERCISES.  209 

EXERCISE  VI.  (Number,  p.  15). 

State  the  kind  and  number  of  each  of  the  nouns  in  the 
following : — 

(a)  "  He  sees  that  this  great  round-about, 
The  world  with  all  its  motley  rout, — 
Church,  army,  physic,  law, 
Its  customs  and  its  businesses, 
Is  no  concern  at  all  of  his." — Cowper. 

(b)  "The  rose  is  fairest  when  'tis  budding  new, 

And  hope  is  brightest  when  it  dawns  from  fears." — Scott. 

(c)  "A  look  of  kind  Truth,  a  word  of  Goodwill, 
Are  the  magical  helps  on  Life's  road  ; 
With  a  mountain  to  travel  they  shorten  the  hill, 
With  a  burden  they  lighten  the  load." 

— Eliza  Cook. 

EXERCISE  VII.  (Revision). 

1.  Give  the    kind    and    gender    of    the    nouns    in    the 
following : — 

(a)  "  A  baby  was  sleeping,  its  mother  was  weeping, 

For  her  husband  was  far  on  the  wild  raging  sea." — S.  Lover. 

(b)  "  Perhaps  that  very  hand,  now  pinion'd  flat, 

Has  hob-a-nobu'd  with  Pharaoh,  glass  to  glass  ; 
Or  dropp'd  a  halfpenny  in  Homer's  hat, 

Or  dofFd  thine  own  to  let  Queen  Dido  pass, 
Or  held,  by  Solomon's  own  invitation, 
A  torch  at  the  great  Temple's  dedication." — Horace  Smith. 

2.  Give  the    kind    and    number  of   the    nouns    in    the 
following : — 

(a)  "  Britannia  needs  no  bulwark, 

No  towers  along  the  steep." — Campbell. 

(b)  "  He  spoke  of  the  grass,  and  flowers,  and  trees, 

Of  the  singing  birds,  and  the  humming  bees, 

Then  talked  of  the  haying,  and  wonder'd  whether 

The  cloud  in  the  west  would  bring  foul  weather." — J.  O.  Whittier. 

EXERCISE  VIII.  (Case,  p.  19). 

1.  Define  case  ;  say  for  which  cases  nouns  are  inflected,  and  what 
determines  the  nominative  case. 

2.  Define  nominative  absolute,  giving  an  example  ;  and  show  the 
two  ways  of  denoting  the  possessive  case. 

3.  Define  cognate  object,  and  say  why  dative  objects  are  so  oalled. 
Give  examples  to  illustrate  your  answer. 

4.  Give  the  meaning  oifactitivt  as  applied  to  the  objective  case; 
and  say  what  is  meant  by  an  adverbial  object. 


210  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  IX.  (Case,  p.  19). 

Select  the  nouns  in  the  nominative  case  in  the  following :— ■ 

1.  The  bloom  falls  in  May. 

2.  The  ostriches'  heads  were  not  to  be  seen. 

3.  "  The  kine,"  said  he,  "  I'll  quickly  feed." 

4.  The  kine  were  fed. 

5.  The  captain  falling  ill,  the  boatswain  took  charge. 

6.  A  wandering  minstrel  am  I. 

7.  Here  lies  the  body  of  a  noble  man. 

8.  Richard,  they  say,  was  cruel. 

9.  The  bell  ringing,  the  children  assembled. 

10.  Richard,  William's  son,  was  killed  in  the  New  Forest. 

1 1.  A  number  of  sheep,  losing  their  way,  fell  over  the  precipice. 

12.  Rattle  his  bones  over  the  stones. 

13.  The  guide  falling  ill,  the  travellers  had  to  rely  on  his  dog. 

14.  Ah  !  Charlie,  my  son,  you  cheer  your  old  mother  ! 

EXERCISE  X.  (Case,  p.  19). 

Write  out  the  nouns  in  the  objective  case  in  each  of  the 
following  sentences : — 

1.  Britannia  rules  the  waves. 

2.  I  beg  your  pardon. 

3.  To-night  no  moon  I  see. 

4.  How  many  birds  did  they  catch? 

5.  The  king  conferred  with  the  general. 

6.  The  children  laughed  at  the  squirrel. 

7.  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous. 

8.  The  crooked  oak  I  '11  fell  to-day, 

9.  A  liar  who  can  trust  ? 

10.  We  know  a  tree  by  its  fruit. 

1 1.  He  told  a  good  tale. 

12.  The  boy  sneered  at  the  idea. 

13.  Richard  slew  his  godfather,  Richard  Neville,  Earl  of  Warwick, 
the  kingmaker. 

EXERCISE  XI.  (Case,  p.  19). 

Write  the  following  in  the  ordinary  possessive  form : — 

1.  The  bark  of  a  dog. 

2.  The  twitter  of  the  swallows. 

3.  The  books  of  John. 

4.  The  spades  of  the  workmen. 

5.  The  studies  of  James. 

6.  The  scissors  of  Miss  Cissy  Moses. 

7.  The  lute  of  Orpheus. 

8.  The  sword  of  Achilles. 

9.  The  subscriptions  of  the  ladies. 

10.  The  death  of  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry. 


EXERCISES.  211 


11.  The  cries  of  the  babies. 

12.  The  marriage  of  Richard,  Earl  of  Cambridge. 

13.  The  innocence  of  the  lilies. 

14.  The  head  of  a  sheep. 

15.  The  tails  of  sheep. 

16.  The  jubilee  of  Victoria,  Queen  of  England. 

17.  The  sake  of  my  conscience. 


EXERCISE  XII.   (Case,  p.  19). 


Give  particulars  of  the  cases  of  each  of  the  nouns  in  the 
following :  — 

1.  Toll  for  the  brave. 

2.  Flaxen  was  his  hair. 

3.  Ho,  gunners  !  fire  a  loud  salute. 

4.  Give  the  man  a  draught  from  the  spring. 

5.  The  parson  told  the  sexton,  and  the  sexton  toll'd  the  bell, 

6.  Boys,  you  deserve  to  have  a  holiday  given  you. 

7.  It  is  very  like  a  whale. 

8.  In  this  place  ran  Cassius*  dagger  through. 

9.  He  paid  him  the  debt  for  conscience'  sake. 

10.  The  king's  baker  dreamed  a  dream. 

1 1.  The  lady  lent  the  boy  "Robinson  Crusoe." 

12.  Bid  yonr  wife  be  judge. 

13.  The  Count  of  Anjou  became  leader. 

14.  Joan  seemed  a  holy  woman. 

15.  Charles  appointed  Buckingham  commander. 

16.  Let  the  actors  play  the  play. 

17.  John  walked  two  hours  and  travelled  seven  miles. 

18.  How  many  hired  servants  of  my  father's  have  bread  enough. 

19.  I  have  a  sixpence,  but  no  pennies. 

20.  Benjamin,  Joseph's  own  brother,  Jacob's  youngest  son,   was 
kept  a  prisoner. 

EXERCISE  XIII.  (Case,  p.  19). 

State  fully  the  cases  of  the  nouns  in  the  following ; — 

1.  The  sergeant  choosing  the  tallest,  the  other  recruits  dispersed. 

2.  Old  Kaspar's  work  was  done. 

3.  William,  sing  a  song. 

4.  She  made  the  poor  girl  a  dress. 

5.  She  knitted  all  day. 

6.  The  tide  floated  the  vessel. 

7.  The  boy  swam  his  little  boat. 

8.  Let  the  king  be  your  leader. 

9.  A  small  hole  will  sink  a  ship. 

10.  Let  bygones  be  bygones. 

11.  It  rains,  it  hails,  it  blows,  it  snows, 
Methinks  I  'm  wet  thro'  all  mv  clothes. 


212  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  XIV.  (Nouns). 

Parse  fully  all  the  nouns  occurring  in  the  following  :—* 

(a)  "  Underneath  this  sable  hearse 
Lies  the  subject  of  all  verse, 
Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother." — Ben  Jonson. 

(6)   "His  house  was  known  to  all  the  vagrant  train  ; 

He  chid  their  wand'rings,  but  relieved  their  pain." — Goldsmith. 

(c)  u  Yet  shall  poor  Tom  find  pleasant  weather, 
When  He,  who  all  commands, 
Shall  give,  to  call  life's  crew  together, 
The  word  to  pipe  all  hands." — G.  Dibdin. 


EXERCISE  XV.  (Pronouns,  p.  23). 

1.  Define   a  pronoun ;    give   its   derivation ;    and   say  what   you 
understand  by  a  personal  pronoun. 

2.  What  are  the  only  pronouns  that  can  be  used  in  the  vocative 
case  ;  and  which  person  alone  takes  distinction  of  gender? 

3.  Define  an  interrogative  pronoun  ;  and  distinguish  between  who 
and  what,  ye  and  you,  thy  and  thine,  and  trie  and  myself. 

4.  Explain  the  ch  in  which,  the  m  in  whom,  the  ther  in  whether,  and 
the  t  in  it. 

5.  Define  a  distributive  pronoun  ;  and  say  when  reflexive  pronouns 
are  used. 


EXERCISE  XVI.  (Pronouns,  p.  23). 

Give  the  kind,  gender,  number,  person,  and  case  of  each 
of  the  pronouns  below : — 

(a)  "  I  am  monarch  of  all  I  survey, 

My  right  there  is  none  to  dispute." — Cowper. 

(b)  "  You  yourself  are  much  condemn'd." — Shakespeare. 

(c)  "Who  would  fill  a  coward's  grave  ?" — Burns. 

(d)  "  You  wrong'd  yourself  to  write  in  such  a  case." — Shakespeare. 

(e)  "  Each  had  his  place  appointed,  each  his  course." — Milton. 

(/)  "Of  them  He  chose  twelve,  whom  also  He  named  apostles." 

—Bible. 

{g)  "He  is  the  freeman  whom  the  truth  makes  free, 
And  all  are  slaves  besides." — Cowper. 


EXERCISES.  213 

EXERCISE  XVII.  (Pronouns,  p.  23). 

Write  in  two  columns  the  relatives  and  antecedents  in  the 
following : — 

(a)  "  To  know 
That  which  before  us  lies  in  daily  life, 
Is  the  prime  wisdom." — Milton. 

(b)  M  Who  steals  my  purse  steals  trash." — Shakespeare. 

(c)  "  He  prayeth  best,  who  loveth  best 

All  things,  both  great  and  small." — Coleridge. 

(d)  "  Freedom  has  a  thousand  charms  to  show, 

That  slaves,  howe'er  contented,  never  know." — Cowper. 

(«)  M  Vain,  very  vain,  my  weary  search  to  find 

That  bliss  which  only  centres  in  the  mind." — Goldsmith. 

(/)  "  Be  strong,  live  happy,  and  love ;  but  first  of  all, 
Him  whom  to  love  is  to  obey." — Milton. 

EXERCISE  XVIII.  (Pronouns,  p.  23). 

Parse  fully  the  relatives  and   their    antecedents   in   the 
following : — 

(a)  "  Whoever  lov'd,  that  lov'd  not  at  first  sight  ?  " — Shakenpeare. 

(b)  "There  were  none  of  the  Grograms  but  could  sing  a  song,  or 
of  the  Marjorams  but  could  tell  a  story." — Goldsmith. 

(c)  "Whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper." — Bible. 

(d)  "Let  such  teach  others,  who  themselves  excel." — Pope. 

EXERCISE  XIX.  (Revision). 
Parse  fully  the  nouns  and  pronouns  in  the  following : — 

(a)  "The  place  that  she  hath  chosen  out, 

Herself  in  to  repose, 
Had  they  come  down,  the  gods  no  doubt 
The  very  same  had  chose." — Drayton. 

(b)  "So,  Willy,  let  you  and  me  be  wipers 

Of  scores  out  with  all  men,  especially  pipers  : 

And,  whether  they  pipe  us  free  from  rats  or  from  mice, 

If  we've  promised  them  aught,  let  us  keep  our  promise." 

— Browning. 

EXERCISE  XX.  (Adjectives,  p.  28). 

1.  Define  an  adjective  ;   and  show,  with  examples,  the  twofold 
function  of  an  adjective. 

2.  Name  the  kinds  of  adjectives  ;  and  give  the  derivation  of  each 
name. 


214  EXERCISES. 

3.  Say  in  what  ways  quantitative  adjectives  may  be  used  ;  and  how 
numeral  adjectives  may  be  classified. 

4.  What  adjectives  are  inflected  for  number  ;  and  what  for  com- 
parison ? 

5.  State  how  the  comparative  is  formed  ;  and  distinguish  between 
further  and  farther,  older  and  elder,  later  and  latter. 

6.  Write  the  ordinals  of  one,  two,  three,  four,  forty,  eight,  twenty, 
hundred,  five,  twelve. 

EXERCISE  XXI.  (Adjectives,  p.  28). 

Classify  the  adjectives  in  the  following : — 

1.  "In  the  body  politic,  as  in  the  natural  body,  morbid  languor 
succeeds  morbid  excitement." — Macaiday. 

2.  "So  thick  a  drop  serene  hath  quenched  their  orbs." — Milton. 

3.  "  His  ain  coat  on  his  back  is." — Old  Song. 

4.  "He  was  a  ready  orator,  an  elegant  poet,  a  skilful  gardener, 
an  excellent  cook,  and  a  most  contemptible  sovereign." — Gibbon, 

5.  "  Tired  nature's  sweet  restorer,  balmy  sleep." — Young. 

6.  "  You  gave  good  words  the  other  day  of  a  bay  courser  I  rode." 
— Shakespeare. 

7.  "  The  poor  man  that  loveth  Christ  is  richer  than  the  richest 
man." — Bunyan. 

8.  "  Sole  Eve,  associate  sole,  to  me  beyond  compare  above  all 
living  creatures  dear." — Milton. 

9.  "Fox  beat  half  the  lawyers  in  the  House  at  their  own  weapons." 
— Macaulay. 

EXERCISE  XXII.  (Adjectives,  p.  28). 

Parse  fully  all  the  adjectives  in  the  following : — 

1.  "The  better  part  of  valour  is  discretion  ;  in  the  which  better 
part  I  have  saved  my  life." — Shakespeare. 

2.  "  Act  well  your  part ;  there  all  the  honour  lies." — Pope. 

3.  "The  greater  the  new  power  they  create,  the  greater  seems 
their  revenge  against  the  old." — Bulwer. 

4.  "  It  was  a  very  low  fire  indeed  for  such  a  bitter  night." — Dickens. 

5.  "  Some  three  or  four  of  you  go,  give  him  courteous  conduct  to 
this  place." — Shakespeare. 

6.  "  Many  a  carol,  old  and  saintly,  sang  the  minstrels." —  Longfellow. 

7.  "  The  morning  comes  cold  for  a  July  one." — Carlyle. 

8.  "  I  '11  fill  another  pipe." — Sterne. 

EXERCISE  XXIII.  (Adjectives,  p.  28). 

1.  Compare  the  following  adjectives  where  they  admit  of  it :  stout, 
thin,  marvellous,  calm,  shy,  ladylike,  gentlemanly,  wet,  honourable,  dead, 
near,  full,  prim,  lovely,  clayey,  happy,  sad,  solar. 

2.  Write  the  positive  of  next,  more,  inner,  last,  least,  first,  inmost, 
better ;  and  the  superlative  of  evil,  late,  much,  ill,  good. 


EXERCISES.  215 

EXERCISE  XXLV.  (Adjectives,  p.  28). 

Parse  fully  the  adjectives  in  the  following : — 

1.  "  That  sun  that  warms  you  here  shall  shine  on  me." — Shakespeare. 

2.  "Can  the  false-hearted  boy  have  chosen  such  a  tool  as  yonder 
fellow  ?  " — Dickens. 

3.  "Look  here,  upon  this  picture,  and  on  this;  the  counterfeit 
presentment  of  two  brothers." — Shakespeare. 

4.  "  My  father  lived  at  Blenheim  then,  yon  little  stream  hard  by." 
— Southey. 

5.   "  The  oracles  are  dumb  ; 
No  voice  or  hideous  hum 
Runs  thro'  the  arched  roof  in  words  deceiving." — Milton. 


EXERCISE  XXV.  (Revision). 

Parse  the  nouns  and  adjectives  in  the  following : — 

(a)  "  Lord  !  Thou  dost  love  Jerusalem, 
Once  she  was  all  Thy  own  : 
Her  love  Thy  fairest  heritage, 

Her  power  Thy  glory's  throne." — Moore. 

(6)  "As  proper  men  as  ever  trod  upon  neat's  leather  have  gone 
upon  my  handiwork." — Shakespeare. 

EXERCISE  XXVI    (Revision). 

Parse  the  pronouns  and  adjectives  in  the  following : — 

(a)  "  0,  Sir,  to  wilful  men, 

The  injuries  that  they  themselves  procure 
Must  be  their  schoolmasters." — Shakespeare. 

(b)  "True  ease  in  writing  comes  from  art,  not  chance, 

As  those  move  easiest  who  have  learned  to  dance." — Pope. 

(c)  "Who  said  that  I  had  given  thee  up? 

Who  said  that  thou  wert  sold?" — Mrs.  Norton. 

EXERCISE  XXVII.  (The  Verb,  p.  34). 

1.  Define  a  verb  and  a  transitive  verb  ;  and  name  the  ways  in 
which  an  intransitive  verb  may  become  transitive. 

2.  What  is  an  auxiliary,  and  why  are  auxiliaries  necessary  ?  Illus- 
trate your  answer  by  examples. 

3.  Say  what  you  understand  by  voice ;  what  are  the  only  verbs 
that  can  be  in  the  passive  voice ;  and  how  the  passive  voice  is 
formed. 


216  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  XXVIII.  (Classification  of  Verbs,  p.  35). 

Classify  the  verbs  in  the  following  into  transitive  and  in- 
transitive : — 

(a)  "  I  think,  articulate,  I  laugh  and  weep, 

And  exercise  all  the  functions  of  a  man  ; 
How  then  should  I  and  any  man  that  lives 
Be  strangers  to  each  other  ?  " —  Cowper. 

(6)  "  A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  for  ever ; 
Its  loveliness  increases  ;  it  will  never 
Pass  into  nothingness." — Keats. 

(c)  "  He  prayeth  best,  who  loveth  best 

All  things,  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all." — Coleridge. 

EXERCISE  XXIX.  (Classification  of  Verbs,  p.  35). 

Arrange  the  following  verbs  as  prepositional  or  causative : — 

1.  The  magistrate  swore  in  the  constables. 

2.  The  goodness  of  the  soil  soon  raised  a  crop. 

3.  I  have  spoken  to  a  man  who  once  baited  a  hook  and  drew  in 
a  pike. 

4.  The  gardener  will  fell  the  tree,  and  lay  out  the  borders. 

5.  The  pirates  having  jeered  at  the  threats,  sank  the  ship. 

6.  Some  of  the  children  will  fly  kites,  others  swim  boats. 

7.  Tom  will  run  his  pony  up  and  down. 

8.  They  glory  in  little  faults,  wink  at  great  ones,  and  cough  down 
the  remonstrances  of  the  wise  men. 

EXERCISE  XXX.   (Voices  of  Verbs,  p.  39). 

Rewrite  the  eight  sentences  in  the  foregoing  exercise  in 
the  passive  voice. 

EXERCISE  XXXI.  (Tenses  of  Verbs,  p.  41). 

Give  particulars  of  the  tense  of  each  of  the  verbs  in  the 
following : — 

(a)  M  The  king  is  come  to  marshal  us,  all  in  his  armour  drest." 

— Macaulay. 

(b)  "  I  would  not  have  believed  it  unless  I  had  happened  to  have 
been  there." — Dickens. 

(c)  "I  am,  I  will,  I  shall  be  happy." — Lytton. 

(d)  You  are  fighting  a  shadow. 

(«)      I  shall  have  had  enough  of  this. 


EXERCISES.  217 

(f)  Why  came  ye  hither  ? 

(g)  Knew  ye  not  what  they  had  lost? 

(h)      We  know  not,  neither  do  we  care. 

(»')      A  man  who  had  lost  his  way,  stopped  till  a  boy  came  saunter- 
ing along. 

{k)  "Am  I  in  the  right  road  for  London?  "  said  the  man. 

(/)    "  Yes,"  was  the  reply ;  "  but  you  will  not  get  there  till  you 
have  walked  twelve  miles." 

(m)  M  I  have  bee*  walking  three  hours  already,  and  I  shall  have 
been  travelling  a  whole  day  ere  I  reach  my  journey's  end." 

EXERCISE  XXXII.  (Moods  of  Verbs,  p.  38). 
State  the*  mood  of  each  of  the  verbs  in  the  following,  and 
distinguish  between  the  different  sorts  of  infinitives. 

(a)  "  I  dare  do  all  that  may  become  a  man  : 

Who  dares  do  more  is  none." — Shakespeare. 

(b)  "Truth  from  his  lips  prevail'd  with  double  sway, 

And  fools  who  came  to  scoff  remained  to  pray." — Goldsmith, 

(c)  "  Well,  sit  we  down, 

And  let  us  hear  Bernardo  speak  of  this." — Shakespeare. 

(d)  "I  watched  the  little  circles  die." — Tenvyson. 

(e)  "  I  am  ashamed  to  observe  you  hesitate." — Scott. 

(/)  "  Come  unto  these  yellow  sands, 
And  then  take  hands  ; 
Curtsied  when  you  have,  and  kissed, 
(The  wild  waves  hist) 
Foot  it  featly  here  and  there." — Shakespeare. 

EXERCISE  XXXIII.  (Auxiliary  Verbs,  p.  48). 

Select  the  auxiliaries  from  the  following  sentences,  and 
show  the  force  of  each  : — 

(a)  "I  did  send  to  you  for  gold." — Shakespeare. 

(b)  "The  lark  has  sung  his  carol  in  the  sky, 

The  bees  have  humm'd  their  noontide  lullaby." — Rogers. 

(c)  "  He  was — whatever  thou  hast  been, 

He  is — what  thou  shalt  be." — Montgomery. 

{d)  I  shall  be  drowned  if  none  will  save  me  ! 

(e)  Will  he  not  come  again  ? 

(/)  We  have  been  thinking  over  the  matter. 

{g)  He  could  have  been  there  had  he  wished  to  have  been  seen  by 
his  old  friends. 


218  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  XXXIV.  (Strong  and  Weak  Verbs,  p.  43). 

Arrange  the  verbs  in  Exercises  XXXII.  and  XXXIII.  as 
strong  or  weak. 

EXERCISE  XXXV.  (Verb  "To  be," p.  50). 

1.  Say  of  what  verbs  the  verb  be  is  made  up,  and  give  the  four 
ways  in  which  this  verb  is  used. 

2.  State  the  use  of  be  in  each  of  the  following  instances  :— ■ 

(a)  "  Whatever  is,  is  right." — Pope. 

(b)  Thou  art  the  man. 

(c)  I  shall  be  there. 

(d)  They  are  to  resign. 

(e)  David  was  a  bold  man. 

(/)  The  men  will  be  chosen  by  lot.  • 

(;/)  He  is  gone  to  his  grave. 

(h)  "Be  off  .'"cried  the  old  man  to  the  boys  who  were  teasing 
him. 

EXERCISE  XXXVI.  (Mood  and  Tense  Auxiliaries,  p.  53). 

1.  Name  the  mood  auxiliaries  and  the  tense  auxiliaries,  and  give 
the  limitation  of  each. 

2.  Why  are  can  and  may  called  defective  verbs  ? 

3.  In  what  tense  is  the  verb  must  never  used  ?     What  was  the 
original  meaning  of  the  word,  and  what  is  its  present  idea? 

EXERCISE  XXXVII.  (Adverbs,  p.  57). 

1.  Define  an  adverb  ;  and  say  in  what  two  ways  adverbs  may  be 
classified,  illustrating  your  answer  by  examples. 

2.  Give  the  classification  of  adverbs  according  to  their  meaning, 
and  show  the  twofold  function  of  a  conjunctive  adverb. 

EXERCISE  XXXVIII.  (Adverbs,  p.  57). 

Arrange   as   simple   or   conjunctive   the   adverbs   in    the 
following : — 

1.  Come  where  the  moonbeams  linger. 

2.  Where  are  you  going? 

3.  Where  the  bee  sucks,  there  suck  I. 

4.  Come  in. 

5.  Look  out !     Here  comes  the  beadle,  so  let  us  run. 

6.  Who's  there? 

7.  I  know  a  bank  whereon  the  wild  thyme  grows. 

8.  Then  out  spake  bold  Horatius. 

9.  I  love  my  love  because  my  love  loves  me. 

10.  Verily  here  are  sweetly  scented  herbs,  therefore  will  we  set  ua 
down  awhile  till  our  friends  leisurely  return. 


EXERCISES.  219 

EXERCISE  XXXIX.  (Adverbs,  p.  57). 
Classify  the  adverbs  in  the  following : — 

(a)     "Once  again  we'll  sleep  secure." — Shakespeare. 

(6)     "  My  father  lived  at  Blenheim  then, 

Yon  little  stream  hard  by." — Southey. 

(c)  "  Thus  have  I  yielded  into  your  hand 

The  circle  of  my  glory." — Shakespeare, 

(d)  "  Now  the  great  winds  shoreward  blow, 

Now  the  salt  tides  seaward  flow." — M.  Arnold, 

(«)     "  We  no  longer  believe  in  St.  Edmund." — Carlylc 
(/)    "  What  so  moves  thee  all  at  once  ?  " — Coleridge, 
(g)    "  Vex  not  thou  the  poet's  mind." — Tennyson. 

EXERCISE  XL.  (Adverbs,  p.  57). 
Parse  the  adverbs  in  the  following : — 

(a)  "  The  solemn  peaks  but  to  the  stars  are  known, — 

But  to  the  stars,  and  the  cold  lunar  beams." — M.  Arnold. 

(b)  "  My  life  is  spann'd  already." — Shakespeare. 

(c)  "  You  always  put  things  so  pleasantly." — Bulwer. 

(d)  "  Not  all  the  pearls  Queen  Mary  wears, 

Nor  Margaret's  still  more  precious  tears, 
Shall  buy  his  life  a  day."— Scott. 

(e)  "  Why  holds  thine  eye  that  melancholy  rheum  ?  " 

— Shakespeare. 
(/)  A  very  inquisitive  child  once  saucily  asked  of  an  exceedingly 
needy-looking  man,  "  Where  do  you  most  generally  dine  ?  "    Immedi- 
ately the  all  but  actually  starving  man  replied  somewhat  sadly,  though 
quite  smartly  withal,  "Near  anything  I  may  get  to  eat." 

EXERCISE  XLI.  (Revision). 

Parse  fully  the  nouns,  verbs,  and  adverbs  in  the  follow- 
ing:— 

(a)  "Go  out,  children,  from  the  mine  and  from  the  city, 
Sing  out,  children,  as  the  little  thrushes  do  : 
Pluck  your  handfuls  of  the  meadow  cowslips  pretty, 
Laugh  aloud,  to  feel  your  fingers  let  them  through." 

— Mrs,  Browning. 

(6)  "None  of  us  yet  know,  for  none  of  us  have  yet  been  taught  in 
early  >  outh,  what  fairy  palaces  we  uiay  build  of  beautiful  thought — 
proof  against  all  adversity." — Rtukin. 


220  EXERCISES. 


EXERCISE   XLII.  (Prepositions,  p.  58). 

Select  the  prepositions  in  the  following,  and  say  what  they 
connect  and  govern  : — 

1.  In  the  corner  of  the  box  near  the  bench  behind  the  door,  is  the 
picture  of  a  man  without  a  coat  to  his  back. 

2.  Notwithstanding  he  had  returned  with  wood,  they  sent  for  some 
more. 

3.  The  lady  in  violet  is  in  mourning. 

4.  Respecting  the  scholars,  all  but  Charles  read  through  the  chapter 
concerning  Galileo. 

5.  Whom  are  you  writing  to  ? 

6.  Come  in,  Puss,  to  your  kittens. 

7.  That  is  the  book  I  spoke  about. 


EXERCISE   XLIII.  (Prepositions,  p.  58). 

1.  Define  a  preposition ;  and  say  what  words  are  affected  by  pre* 
positions. 

2.  Give  a  list  of  simple  prepositions  ;  and  show  the  composition  of 
the  following  prepositions :  but,  beside,  after,  until,  aboard,  beneath, 
among,  beyond. 


EXERCISE   XLIV.  (Conjunctions,  p.  60). 

1.  Define  a  conjunction,   and  distinguish  between  co-ordinate  and 
subordinate  conjunctions. 

2.  Classify  the  conjunctions  in  the  following  : — 

(a)     "  My  hair  is  grey,  but  not  with  years, 
Nor  grew  it  white 
In  a  single  night." — Byron. 

(6)  "Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be." — Shakespeare. 

(c)  "Awake,  arise,  or  be  for  ever  fallen." — Milton. 

(d)  "  Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest." — Pope. 

(e)  "  Must  I  then  leave  you  ?  " — Shakespeare. 

(/)  "  Wealth  may  seek  us,  but  wisdom  must  be  sought." — Young. 

(g)    "  I  saw  Mark  Antony  offer  him  a  crown ;  yet  it  was  not  a 
crown  neither." — Shakespeare. 

EXERCISE   XLV.   (Syntax,  p.  64). 

1.  Define   syntax ;    and  state  into   what    two   parts   it   may   be 
divided. 

2.  State  the  principal  concords  existing  in  the  English  language; 
and  name  the  chief  instances  of  government. 


EXERCISES.  221 

EXERCISE   XLVI.    (Syntax  of  Noun,  p.  64). 

Give  full  particulars  of  all  nominatives  in  the  following 
quotations: — 

(a)  "  So  work  the  honey  bees, 

Creatures  that  by  a  rule  in  nature  teach 

The  art  of  order  to  a  peopled  kingdom." — Shakespeare. 

(6)     "  A  white  wall  is  the  paper  of  a  fool." — G.  Herbert. 

(c)  "I  that  speak  to  thee  am  he." — Bible. 

(d)  "  Thus  now  alone  he  conqueror  remains." — Spenser. 

(c)     "  Ho  !  gallant  nobles  of  the  League,  look  that  your  arms  be 
bright." — Macaulay. 

EXERCISE   XLVII.   (Syntax  of  Noun,  p.  67). 

Explain  the  possessives  in  the  following  : — 

(a)     "  She  sent  the  deathless  passion  in  her  eyes 

Thro'  him,  aud  made  him  hers,  and  laid  her  mind 
On  him,  and  he  believed  in  her  belief." — Tennyson. 

(6)     "  Then  shall  man's  pride  and  dulness  comprehend 

His  actions',  passions',  being's  use  and  end." — Pope. 

(c)  "  Anything  that  money  would  buy  had  been  his  son's." — 

Thackeray. 

(d)  "  Though  dark  be  my  way,  since  He  is  my  guide, 

'Tis  mine  to  obey,  'tis  His  to  provide." — J.  Newton. 

EXERCISE   XLVIII.    (Syntax  of  Noun,  p.  68). 
Give  full  particulars  of  all  the  objectives  in  the  following  : — 

(a)  "There  were  some  that  ran,  and  some  that  leapt 

Like  troutlets  in  a  pool." — Hood. 

(b)  "  He  has  two  essential  parts  of  a  courtier,  pride  and  ignorance." 

— Ben  Jonson. 

(c)  "  Clearing  the  fence,  he  cried  '  Halloo  ! '  " 

{d)    "  They  made  him  captain,  and  he  gave  them  orders  to  sail  the 
boat  six  leagues  south  of  the  point." 

EXERCISE   XLIX.  (Syntax  of  Adjective,  p.  71). 

Classify  the  adjectives  in  the  following  in  accordance  with 
the  two  ways  in  which  they  are  used : — 

(a)     "  When  I  was  dry  with  rage  and  extreme  toil, 
Breathless  and  faint,  leaning  upon  my  sword, 
Came  there  a  certain  lord,  neat,  trimly  dress'd." — Shakespeare. 
Q 


222  EXERCISES. 

(6)  "Still  more  majestic  shalt  thou  rise, 

More  dreadful  from  each  foreign  stroke ; 
As  the  loud  blast  that  tears  the  skies 

Serves  but  to  root  thy  native  oak." — Thomson. 

(c)  "  They  considered  themselves  fortunate  in  making  the  children 
happy,  and  in  rendering  the  despairing  hopeful." 

EXERCISE  L.  (Syntax  of  Adjective,  p.  71). 

1.  In  what  way  is  a  participle  an  adjective  ;  and  what  function  of 
a  verb  does  it  retain  ? 

2.  Say  all  that  is  necessary  of  the  adjectives  below : — 

(a)   "  Each  horseman  drew  his  battle  blade, 

And  furious  every  charger  neighed." — Campbell. 

{b)  "  He  made  me  mad 

To  see  him  shine  so  brisk  and  smell  so  sweet, 

And  talk  so  like  a  waiting- gentle  woman." — Shakespeare. 

(c)  "  Sweet  Isle  !  within  thy  rock-girt  shore  is  seen 

Nature  in  her  sublimest  dress  arrayed. " — E.  Foskett. 

(d)  "  Into  the  valley  of  death 

Rode  the  six  hundred." — Tennyson. 

(e)  "  A  form  more  fair,  a  face  more  sweet, 

Ne'er  hath  it  been  my  lot  to  meet." — J.  O.   Whittier. 

EXERCISE  LI.  (Syntax  of  Pronoun,  p.  74). 

Show  the  agreement  of  the  pronouns  with  the  nouns  they 
represent  in  the  following : — 

(a)  "  On  she  came  with  a  cloud  of  canvas, 

Right  against  the  wind  that  blew." — Coleridge. 

(b)  "  Who  said  that  I  had  given  thee  up  ? 

Who  said  that  thou  wert  sold  V — Mrs.  Norton. 

(c)  "  She  lov'd  me  for  the  dangers  I  had  pass'd, 

And  I  lov'd  her  that  she  did  pity  them." — Shakespeare, 

(d)  "  The  eye — it  cannot  choose  but  see  ; 

We  cannot  bid  the  ear  be  still ; 
Our  bodies  feel,  where'er  they  be, 

Against,  or  with  our  will."  —  Wordsworth. 

EXERCISE  LII.  (Syntax  of  Pronoun,  p.  74). 

Show  the  concords  of  the  antecedents  and  relatives  in  the 
following : — 

(a)    "  Now  glory  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  from  whom  all  glories  are." 

— Macaulay. 


EXERCISES.  223 

(6)    "This  sword  a  dagger  had,  his  page, 

That  was  but  little  for  his  age." — Butler. 

(c)  "  My  banks  they  are  furnished  with  bees, 

Whos«  murmur  invites  one  to  sleep." — Shenstone. 

(d)  "  Then  palaces  shall  rise  ;  the  joyful  son 

Shall  finish  what  his  short-lived  sire  begun." — Pope. 


EXERCISE  LIII.  (Syntax  of  Verb,  p.  76). 

Show  the  concord  of  each  verb  in  the  following  with  its 
subject,  and  quote  the  rule  in  each  case  : — 

(a)    "  I  sing  the  birth  was  born  to-night, 

The  author  both  of  life  and  light." — Ben  Jonson. 

(6)    "  Blow,  blow,  thou  winter  wind, 
Thou  art  not  so  unkind 

As  man's  ingratitude. " — Shakespeare. 

(c)  "  Can  storied  urn  or  animated  bust 

Back  to  its  mansion  call  the  fleeting  breath  ?" — Gray. 

(d)  "  Our  company  were  now  arrived  within  a  mile  of  Highgate." 

— Fielding. 

(e)  "  Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be." — Shakespeare. 


EXERCISE  LIV.  (Syntax  of  Verb,  p.  78). 

Arrange  m  two  columns  the  governing  verbs  and  their 
objects  in  the  following: — 

(a)   "  He  gave  to  misery  all  he  had,  a  tear." — Gray. 
{b)    " They  made  me  queen  of  the  May." —  Tennyson. 

(c)  "Thou  hast  a  tongue,  come,  let  us  hear  its  tune." 

— Horace  Smith. 

(d)  "  Past  all  dishonour, 

Death  has  left  on  her 

Only  the  beautiful."—  T.  Hood. 

(e)  "  Methinks  we  must  have  known  some  former  state." 

— L.  E.  Landon. 

(/)  "To  scatter  plenty  o'er  a  smiling  land, 

And  read  their  history  in  a  nation's  eyes, 
Their  lot  forbade  "—Gray. 


224  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  LV.  (Syntax  of  Verb,  p.  80). 

Give  the  mood  of  each  verb  in  the  following,  adding  any 
explanatory  remark  you  think  necessary : — 

(a)  "  Had  I  a  heart  for  falsehood  framed, 

I  ne'er  could  injure  you." — Sheridan. 

(b)  "  The  good  of  ancient  times  let  others  state  ; 

I  think  it  lucky  I  was  born  so  late." — Sydney  Smith, 

(c)  "  Oh,  then,  while  hums  the  earliest  bee, 

Where  verdure  fires  the  plain, 
Walk  thou  with  me,  and  stoop  to  see 
The  glories  of  the  lane  !  " — Eb.  Elliott. 

(d)  "  They  make  obeisance  and  retire  in  haste, 

Too  soon  to  seek  again  the  watery  waste  : 

Yet  they  repine  not — so  that  Conrad  guides, 

And  who  dare  question  aught  when  he  decides  ?  " — Byron. 


EXERCISE  LVI.  (Syntax  of  Verb,  p.  81). 

Distinguish  between  gerundial  and  simple  infinitives  in  the 

following : — 

(a)  "To  gild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily, 
To  throw  a  perfume  on  the  violet, 
To  smooth  the  ice,  or  add  another  hue 
Unto  the  rainbow,  or  with  taper  light 
To  seek  the  beauteous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish, 
Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess." — Shakespeare. 

(6)  "  To  make  mankind,  in  conscious  virtue  bold, 

Live  o'er  each  scene,  and  be  what  they  behold : 
For  this  the  tragic  muse  first  trod  the  stage, 
Commanding  tears  to  stream  through  every  age." — Pope. 

(c)  "To  err  is  human,  to  forgive  divine." — Pope. 

(d)  "Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest." — Pope. 

(e)  "  Better  dwell  in  the  midst  of  alarms." — Cowper. 

EXERCISE  LVII.  (Syntax  of  Adverb,  Preposition,  and 
Conjunction,  p.  83). 

Give  the  rules  of  syntax  relating  to  adverbs,  prepositions, 
and  conjunctions;  and  use  the  adverbs,  prepositions,  and 
conjunctions  in  the  following  to  illustrate  your  answer  : — 

(a)  "A  second  man  I  honour,  and  still  more  highly  ;  him  who  is 
seen  toiling  for  the  spiritually  indispensable  ;  not  daily  bread,  but 
the  bread  of  life." — Carlyle. 


EXERCISES.  225 

(6)  "This  only  grant  me,  that  my  means  may  lie 

Too  low  for  envy,  for  contempt  too  high." — Cowley. 

(c)  "A  man  that  looks  on  glass, 
On  it  may  stay  his  eye  ; 
Or,  if  he  pleaseth,  through  it  pass, 

And  then  the  heavens  espy." — O.  Herbert. 


ANALYSIS. 


EXERCISE  r.  ^Analysis— A  Sentence,  p.  86). 

1.  Define  a  sentence  ;  and  say  of  what  two  parts  it  must  consist. 

2.  Of  what  may  the  subject  of  a  sentence  consist  ?     Give  examples. 

3.  Define  a  predicate ;  and  state  what  is  necessary  for  the  com- 
pletion of  some  predicates. 


EXERCISE  II.  (Analysis— The  Subject,  p.  88). 

Arrange  in  columns  the  subjects  in  the  following,  and 
of  what  each  consists : — 

(a)    The  potato  is  wholesome. 

(0)  Eat  it 

(c)  "  Hush  I "  said  the  mother. 

(d)  "  Hurrah  !  "  rang  from  the  ranks. 
(«)     The  lazy  take  most  pains. 

(/)   Thinking  leads  to  action. 

(g)    To  learn  meagrely  means  to  beg  eagerly. 

(h)    Who  loves  not  liberty  ? 

(t)     Amassing  wealth  oft  ruins  health. 

(k)    "  Bravo  !  "  shouted  the  audience. 

(1)  Laughing  is  contagious. 


EXERCISE  III.  (Analysis— The  Predicate,  p.  89). 

Select  the  predicates  in  the  following,  and  say  of  what 
each  consists  : — 

(a)  A  cheery  old  soul  lives  here, 
(o)  It  rains. 

(c)  A  live  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion. 

(d)  I  am  not  the  king. 


226  EXERCISES. 

(e)  The  idle  procrastinate. 

(/)  The  dead  alone  are  happy. 

(g)  We  are  all  here. 

(h)  Charity  beareth  all  things. 

(i)  Heroes  die  once. 

(k)  No  one  loves  a  coward. 


EXERCISE  IV.  (Analysis— The  Object,  p.  91). 

Select  the  objects  in  the  following,  and  say  of  what  each 
consists  : — 

(a)  We  loved  him  dearly. 

(b)  The  preacher  cries  "  Prepare !  " 

(c)  Ruskin  adored  the  beautiful. 

(d)  Cats  love  to  lie  basking. 

(e)  Each  man  plucked  a  rose. 
(/)  Who  does  not  love  singing  ? 

(g)  Friends  dislike  saying  good-bye  ! 

(h)  Him  they  found  in  great  distress. 

(i)  He  destroyed  all. 

(k)  She  left  none  behind. 

(I)  One  sailor  saved  the  other. 

(m)  One  good  turn  deserves  another 


EXERCISE  V.   (Analysis— The  Object,  p.  92). 

Select  the  objects  in  the  following,  distinguishing  between 
direct  and  indirect : — 

(a)  Give  the  knave  a  groat. 

(b)  Thrice  he  offered  him  the  crown. 

(c)  He  handed  his  daughter  down-stairs. 

(d)  They  handed  the  visitors  programmes. 

(e)  The  weather  promises  the  anglers  fine  sport. 

(f)  The  boatswain  taught  the  midshipman  swimming. 

(g)  Grant  us  a  holiday. 

(h)  The  fox  paid  the  crow  great  attention. 

(i)  Thomas  posted  his  uncle  a  letter. 

(k)  The  sailor-boys  often  bring  their  friends  curiosities. 

{I)   Play  the  children  a  tune. 


EXERCISES. 


227 


FORMS   FOR  THE   ANALYSIS   OF   SENTENCES 
SCHEME   I. 


Subject 

Predicate. 

i 
Object 

The  sun 

shines. 

The  soldiers 

were  brave. 

A  good  son 

obeys 

his  parents. 

Ripe  corn-fields 

always  rejoice 

the  farmer's  heart. 

The  chDd 

appears  ill. 

SCHEME  II. 


Subject. 

Enlargement 

Predicate. 

Extension. 

Object. 

Enlargement. 

Thompson 

the  carpenter 

mended 

very  soon 

the  gate 

broken. 

The  company 

of  huntsmen 

had  taken 

early  next 
morning 

departure 

their. 

The  princes 

of  Europe 

have  found 

recently 

a  plan 

better. 

Parmenio 

the  Grecian 

had  done 

once 

something 

pleasing  to 
the   multi- 
tude. 

SCHEME   III. 


1.  Maud  Muller 

2.  on  a  summer's  day, 

3.  Raked 

4.  the  ineadow 

5.  sweet  with  hay. 

1.  But 

2.  knowledge 

3.  to  their  eyes 

4.  her  ample 

5.  page, 

6.  Rich  with  the  spoils  of  time 

7.  did  unroll 

8.  ne'er. 


Subject. 

Extension  of  predicate  (3). 

Predicate. 

Object. 

Enlargement  of  object  (4). 

(connective  word). 

Subject. 

Extension  of  predicate  (7). 

Enlargement  of  object  (5). 

Object. 

Enlargement  of  object  (5). 

Predicate. 

ExUnMon  of  predicate  (7). 


228 


EXERCISES, 


SCHEME   IV. 

Analyse : — 

M  Those  who  are  conversant  with  books  well  know  how  often  they 
mislead  us,  when  we  have  not  a  living  monitor  at  hand  to  assist  us  in 
comparing  theory  with  practice. " — Junius. 


D, 


1. 

Those 

Subject  (6). 

2. 

who 

Subject  (3). 

3. 

are  conversant  with 

Predicate  ( =  understand). 

4. 

books 

Object  (3). 

5. 

well 

Extension  of  manner  (6). 

6. 

know 

Predicate. 

7. 

how  often 

Extension  of  time  (9). 

8. 

they 

Subject  (9). 

9. 

mislead 

Predicate. 

10. 

us, 

Object  (9). 

11. 

when 

(Conjunction), 

12. 

we 

Subject  (13). 

13. 

have 

Predicate. 

14. 

not 

Extension  of  negation  (13), 

15. 

a  living 

Enlargement  (16). 

16. 

monitor 

Object  (13). 

17. 

at  hand 

Extension  of  place  (13). 

18. 

to  assist  us  in 
theory  with 

comparing 
practice. 

Enlargement  (16). 

A.  Principal  sentence. 

B.  Adjective  sentence  to  (A)  (1). 
G.  Noun  sentence  to  (A)  (6). 

D.  Adverbial  sentence  to  (C)  (9). 


EXERCISES. 


229 


■  52 


i! 


1    >    I 


a  1 

— 


13  6 


£m 


1 


4  ° 

o.a 

*~* 

<T3  "m  -»» 

w 

.Sis 
g.a^, 

a  S  ~. 

■s  ** 

2  3 

CO   43     CO 

in 

>.        eg 

§  8  .a 

HI 

MH  O 

00    w    o 

«    C    C 

III 

«    t-    m 

IS! 

Ml 

a '3 

oo    ■    o 

O    oo    „. 

Ill 


I 


81 


11 


is 


C    1 


•       1 


a  &!*i! 


SI 


13 
I? 


1!  i 

li  .i 


s 


g« 


E 

eg  OS 

Jq  J3 


Is 

03 


q<rs         b««     Sv-'     a^     q. 


as  -g     ~q  1«  s£  s^ 

25      2S  25      IS       2S      25 


.85    2.S 

-  q 

/-         '/. 


23 


9*    MS    23 
5      5       5 


I 


8 

I 

33 

5 


11  I 

12  f 


So 

5 


fi 

88. 


o  2 


®  3  0)  8 

•«  o  >  q 

^2  as 

*o  .-3 


3 

q 

i 
1 

2.. 

It 

- 
M 


111. 

S  "3    _,   OB 

fill 
Jill 


230  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  VI.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Analyse  the  following  according  to  Scheme  I. : — 

(a)  Cowards  fear  themselves. 

(0)  Swimming  teaches  self-reliance. 

(c)  To  labour  is  to  pray. 

(d)  "  Beware,"  said  the  sentry. 
(' )  The  bells  are  chiming. 

(/)  Stop. 

{g)  Plumbers  stop  the  leaks. 

(h)  The  field  yields  the  farmer  a  fortune. 

(i)    Here  we  are. 

(k)  The  child  brought  the  invalid  a  garland. 

(1)  Phoebus  loves  gilding  the  corn-fields. 


EXERCISE  VII.  (Analysis— Enlargements,  p.  94). 

Of  what  may  enlargements  consist  1   Point  out  the  enlarge- 
ments in  the  following,  and  say  of  what  kind  each  is  : — 

(")  A  good  little  girl  sat  under  a  tree. 

( /)  A  desire  to  excel  actuates  Smith,  the  foreman. 

(c)  A  ramble  on  a  summer  evening  restores  the  drooping  spirit. 

(d)  Feeling  sorry,  he  gave  the  poor  old  fellow  a  hearty  meal. 

(e)  William,  the  captain  of  the  school,  knowing  the  game,  taught 

the  new  scholars  the  rules. 
(/)  Remembering  your  duty,  visit  the  sick. 


EXERCISE  VIII.  (Analysis— Extensions,  p.  95). 

Select  the  extensions  in  the  following,  and  say  of  what  each 
consists : — 

(a)  Sweetly  sing  soft  songs  to  me. 

(b)  In  a  whisper  she  gave  them  the  order. 

(c)  Inch  by  inch  the  spider  travelled. 

(d)  I  come  to  bury  Caesar. 

(e)  Listen  patiently  to  hear  the  nightingale. 
{/)  The  tide  came  creeping  up  the  beach. 
{g)  The  old  man  walks  with  two  sticks. 


EXERCISES.  231 

EXERCISE  IX.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Analyse  the  following  sentences  according  to  Scheme  II. : — 

(a)  "  I  will  make  thee  beds  of  roses." — C.  Marlowe. 

(b)  "Then  came  the  Autumn  all  in  yellow  clad." — Spenser. 

(c)  M  Give  me  ray  scallop-shell  of  quiet, 

My  staff  of  faith  to  -walk  upon." — Raleigh. 

(d)  "Thus  clad  and  fortified,  Sir  Knight 

From  peaceful  home  set  forth  to  fight." — Butler. 

EXERCISE  X.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Analyse  the  following  sentences  according  to  Scheme  II. : — 

(a)  "Dear  Thomas,  didst  thou  ever  pop 

Thy  head  into  a  tinman's  shop  ?  " — M.  Prior. 

(b)  M  One  morning  a  Peri  at  the  gate 

Of  Eden  stood,  disconsolate." — T.  Moore. 

(c)  "  The  spirits  of  your  fathers 

Shall  start  from  every  wave." — Campbell. 

(d)  "  The  castled  crag  of  Drachenfels 

Frowns  o'er  the  wide  and  winding  Rhine." — Byron. 

EXERCISE  XI.   (Analysis— Revision). 

Analyse   the    following   sentences   according   to    Scheme 
III.  :— 

(a)  "  Sometime  we  '11  angle  in  the  brook, 

The  freckled  trout  to  take." — M.  Drayton. 

(b)  "  The  shepherd  swains  shall  dance  and  sing 

For  thy  delight  each  May  morning." — C.  Marlowe 

(c)  ".Thy  gentle  flows  of  guiltless  joys, 

On  fools  and  villains  ne'er  descend." — Johnson. 

EXERCISE  XIT.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Analyse   the    following    sentences  according   to    Scheme 
III.  :— 

(a)  "  Through  the  trembling  ayre 
Sweet-breathing  Zephyrus  did  softly  play." — Spenser. 

(b)  "  Close  by  the  regal  chair 

Fell  Thirst  and  Famine  scowl 

A  baleful  smile  upon  their  baffled  guest." — Gray. 


232  EXERCISES. 

(c)  "  The  Sundays  of  man's  life, 

Threaded  together  on  time's  string, 

Make  bracelets  to  adorn  the  wife 

Of  the  eternal  glorious  king." — George  Herbert. 

(d)  "  With  beating  heart  to  the  task  he  went." — Scott. 


EXERCISE  XIII.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Expand  the  adjectives  in  the  following  into  phrases 

{a)  A  merciful  man  considers  his  beast. 

(b)  The  mistress  scolded  the  lazy  servant. 

(c)  A  ragged  man  went  down  the  lane. 

(d)  The  plague  carried  off  the  young  onest 

(e)  Numerous  birds  were  found  dead. 
(/)  Sailors  dislike  a  dead  calm. 


EXERCISE  XIV.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Expand  the  adverbs  in  the  following  into  phrases : — 

(a)  Green  seldom  tries  the  eye. 

(b)  The  soldiers  rested  there. 

(c)  The  man  answered  the  charge  easily. 

(d)  111  weeds  grow  apace. 
(«)  Dead  dogs  never  bark. 

(/)  Come  quickly. 

EXERCISE  XV.  (Analysis— Complex  Sentence,  p.  102). 

1.  Define    a   complex   sentence ;    and   state   in  what   three  ways 
subordinate  sentences  can  occur. 

2.  Say  what  is  meant  by  a  subordinate  sentence,  and  show  how 
subordinate  sentences  can  be  co-ordinate. 

3.  Make  the  following  simple  sentences  complex  by  expanding  the 
adjective  into  an  adjectival  sentence  : — 

(a)  Empty  vessels  make  the  most  noise, 
(o)   The  kitchen  clock  keeps  time. 

(c)  Small  strokes  fell  great  oaks. 

(d)  A  hard  hand  often  owns  a  soft  heart. 

(e)  The  relentless  reaper  destroyed  the  lovely  bloom. 
(/)  A  modest  violet  grew  in  a  shady  bed. 


EXERCISES.  233 

EXERCISE  XVL  (Analysis— Complex  Sentence,  p.  104). 

Make  subordinate  sentences  by  the  expansion  of  the  adverbs 
in  the  following  : — 

(a)   He  writes  legibly. 

(6)   The  king  behaved  shamefully. 

(c)    The  rich  deride  the  poor  very  seldom. 

{d)  Men  often  think  themselves  immortal. 

(«)    Demosthenes  gradually  became  free  of  speech. 

(/)  Stephenson  overcame  difficulties  bravely. 

EXERCISE  XVII.  (Analysis— Complex  Sentence,  p.  106). 

Change   the   subjects   or   objects    in   the   following    into 
sentences : — 

(a)  To  love  one's  child  is  natural. 

(6)    Carelessness  brings  its  punishment. 

(c)    Being  deserving  should  precede  success. 

{d)  Reigning  in  peace  is  more  glorious  than  dying  in  war. 

(e)    Borrowing  means  sorrowing. 

(/)  Lending  is  not  always  befriending. 

EXERCISE  XVIII.  (Analysis— Compound  Sentence,  p.  111). 

1.  Define  a  compound  sentence ;  and  say  how  co-ordinate  sentences 
are  sometimes  contracted  ? 

2.  Analyse  the  following  compound  sentences  according  to  Scheme 
II.:— 

(a)  "  Of  conversation  sing  an  ample  theme, 

And  drink  the  tea  of  Heliconian  stream." — Chatterton. 

(b)  "  Come  forth  into  the  light  of  things, 

Let  Nature  be  your  teacher." — Wordsworth. 


EXERCISE  XIX.  (Analysis— Compound  Sentence,  p.  111). 

Analyse  the  following  compound  sentences  according  to 
Scheme  II. : — 

(a)  "He  gazed  at  the  flowers  with  tearful  eyes, 

He  kissed  their  drooping  leaves." — Longfellow. 

(6)  "  On  piety,  humanity  is  built; 

And,  on  humanity,  much  happiness." — Young. 

(c)  "On  the  green  bank  I  sat  and  listened  long." — Dryden. 

(d)  "0,  young  Lochinvar  is  come  out  of  the  west, 

Through  all  the  wide  Border  his  steed  was  the  best, 
And,  save  his  good  broadsword,  he  weapons  had  none  ; 
He  rode  all  unarmed,  and  he  rode  all  alone." — Scott. 


234  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  XX.  (Analysis— Revision). 
Analyse  the  following  sentences  according  to  Scheme  IV. : — 

(a)  "The  harp  that  once  through  Tara's  halls 

The  soul  of  music  shed, 
Now  hangs  as  mute  on  Tara's  walls 
As  if  that  soul  were  fled." — Moore. 

(b)  "The  autumn  winds  rushing 

Waft  the  leaves  that  are  searest, 
But  our  flower  was  ia  flushing 

When  blighting  was  nearest." — Scott. 

(c)  "Her  beads  while  she  numbered,  the  baby  still  slumbered, 

And  smiled  in  her  face,  while  she  bended  her  knee, 

1  Oh  !  blessed  be  that  warning,  my  child,  thy  sleep  adorning, 

For  I  know  that  the  angels  are  whispering  with  thee." 

— S.  Lover. 

EXERCISE  XXI.  (Analysis— Revision). 
Analyse  the  following  sentences  according  to  Scheme  V. : — 

(a)  "Ah  !  yet,  e'er  I  descend  into  the  grave, 

May  I  a  small  house  and  large  garden  have  ! 
And  a  few  friends,  and  many  books,  both  true, 
Both  wise,  and  both  delightful  too  !  " — Cowley. 

(b)  "  Ring  ye  the  bells,  ye  young  men  of  the  town, 

And  leave  your  wonted  labours  for  this  day  : 
This  day  is  holy  ;  do  you  write  it  down, 

That  ye  for  ever  it  remember  may." — Drayton. 

(c)  "This  above  all — to  thine  own  self  be  true  ; 

And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 

Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." — Shakespeare. 

EXERCISE  XXII.   (Analysis— Revision). 
Analyse,  as  in  the  preceding  : — 

(a)  "  Take  physic,  pomp  ; 
Expose  thyself  to  feel  what  wretches  feel ; 
That  thou  may'st  shake  the  superflux  to  them, 
And  show  the  heavens  more  just." — Shakespeare. 

(b)  "  That  man  is  freed  from  servile  bands, 

Of  hope  to  rise,  or  fear  to  fall ; 
Lord  of  himself,  though  not  of  lands, 

And  having  nothing,  yet  hath  all." — Wotton. 

(c)  "  The  seas  are  quiet  w  hen  the  winds  give  o'er  ; 
.,  So  calm  are  we  when  passions  are  no  more ; 

For  then  we  know  how  vain  it  was  to  boast 

Of  feeling  things  too  certain  to  be  lost." — Waller. 


EXERCISES.  235 

EXERCISE  XXIII.  (Analysis— Revision). 

Analyse,  as  before  : — 

(a)  "Let  me  tell  the  adventurous  stranger, 
In  our  calmness  lies  our  danger  ; 
Like  a  river's  silent  running, 
Stillness  shows  our  depth  and  cunning." — Durfey. 

(b)  M  Preseutly  my  soul  grew  stronger  ;  hesitating  then  no  longer, 
1  Sir,'  said  I,  '  or  madam,  truly  your  forgiveness  I  implore  ; 
But  the  fact  is  I  was  napping,  and  so  gently  you  came  rapping, 
And  so  faintly  you  came  tapping,  tapping  at  my  chamber  door, 
That  I  scarce  was  sure  I  heard  you.'" — Poe. 


WOKD-BUILDING 

EXERCISE  I.  (Word-building,  p.  116), 

1.  State  exactly  what  is  meant  by  a  root ;  and  distinguish  between 
root  and  stem. 

2.  What  are  prefixes  and  suffixest  Give  a  general  rule  for  their  use. 

3.  Define  a  hybrid,  and  explain  compound  as  applied  to  words. 
Illustrate  your  answer  by  examples. 

4.  Say  of  each  of  the  syllables  of  the  following  words  whether  it  is 
a  prefix,  a  suffix,  a  root,  a  derivative,  or  an  inflexion :  un-law-ful, 
male-child-ren,  dis-lik-ing,  short-sight-ed,  ink-stand,  roan- serv -ant. 


EXERCISE  II.  (Word-building— Compounds,  p.  116). 

Show  that  the  following  words  are  compounds  of  two  nouns : — 
Monday,     wheatfield,     rainbow,     homestead,     keystone,      Ladyday, 
Michaelmas,  costermonger,  steamship,  sheriff,  viceroy,  and  drake. 


EXERCISE  III.  (Word-building— Compounds,  p.  117). 

Of  what  Part  of  Speech  is  each  of  the  words  of  the  following  com- 
pounds ? — 

Whetstone,  outlay,  shepherd,  soft-soap,  nightmare,  backbonet  scape- 
grace, lady,  wheatear,  fieldfare,  upstart,  and  steward. 


EXERCISE  IV.  (Word-building— Compounds,  p.  117). 

In  the  following  compound  adjectives  say  to  what  Class  of  Word 
each  part  belongs  : — 

Sky  blue,  stiff  necked,  Lord- Mayor-like,  overreaching,  stonecold,  stark- 
mid,  weather-beaten,  threadbare,  wardrobe,  hairsplitting,  icebound,  awe- 
stricken,  footsore. 


236  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  V.  (Word-building— Compounds,  p.  118). 

What  other  Parts  of  Speech  have  been  used  to  make  up  the 
following  compound  verbs  ? — 

Outface,  handcuff,  clearstarch,  outnumber,  whitewash,  ingather, 
outbid. 


EXERCISE  VI.  (Word-building— Compounds,  p.  118). 

Comment  on  each  of  the  following  adverbs  : — 
Needs,  aboard,  afloat,  well,  thither,  how,  withal,  albeit,  seldom,  rather, 
whilst,  whence. 


EXERCISE  VII.  (Word-building— English  Prefixes,  p.  119). 

Show  the  force  of  each  of  the  prefixes  in  the  following  words  : — 
Unloose,  unthankful,  forehead,  bewail,  withdrew,  misrepresent,  begrime, 
wanhope,  gainsay,  behoof,  forlorn,  benighted,  atone. 


EXERCISE  VIII.  (Word-building— English  Prefixes,  p.  120). 

Justify  the  use  of  the  prefixes  in  the  following  by  the  meaning  of 
each  word : — 

Engrave,  offcast,  overdone,  inmost,  overland,  underpay,  outcome^ 
thorovghfare,  embalm,  overstep,  welfare. 


EXERCISE  IX.   (Word-building— Latin  Prefixes,  p.  120). 

Name  the  prefixes  in  the  following,  showing,  where  necessary,  the 
assimilation  : — 

Allure,  acclaim,  abstract,  absolve,  assume,  affront,  aspire,  attract, 
arrest,  aggravate,  address,  pardon. 


EXERCISE  X.  (Word-building— Latin  Prefixes,  p.  123). 

Show  the  force  of  the  prefixes  in — biped,  ambient,  circumnavigate, 
anticipate,  coeval,  desuetude,  cispontine,  transit,  countenance,  country- 
dance,  corrode,  desiccate,  emigrate,  extramural. 


EXERCISE  XI.  (Word-building— Latin  Prefixes,  p.  123). 

Account  for  the  variations  from  the  original  prefix  in  each  of  the 
following : — 

Differ,  irregular,  impending,  illiberal,  ignoble,  embrace,  occur,  sedition. 


EXERCISES.  237 

EXERCISE  XII.  (Word-building—  Latin  Prefixes,  p.  123). 

Show  the  value  of  the  prefixes  in  the  following  : — 

Interlude,  nonpareil  .malefactor,  international,  intramural,  penumbra, 

remit,  occasion,  permeate,  oblige,  post-obit,  predicate,  retrovert,  preterite, 

secure,  prevent. 

EXERCISE  XIII.  (Word-building— Latin  Prefixes,  p.  123). 

Explain  the  prefixes,  noting  the  cases  of  assimilation : — 
Vicar,  suffer,  surfeit,  viscount,  traduce,  trespass,  succeed,  unified,  sub- 
trahend, segregate,  succumb,  ultramarine,  superhuman,  suffix,  surface. 

EXERCISE  XIV.  (Word-building— Prefixes,  p.  123). 

Give  instances  of  in  becoming  il,  ir,  im,  ig ;  and  of  ob  becoming  oc, 
of,  o,  op.     State  a  general  rule  for  such  changes. 

EXERCISE  XV.  (Word-building— Greek  Prefixes,  p.  126). 

Select  the  prefixes,  and  justify  the  use  of  each  : — 

Epidemic,    endemic,    autonomy,    eclectic,   dyspepsia,    archiepiscopal, 

diatonic,  cataclysm,  apostasy,  antipathy,  anagram,  catastrophe,  eccentric, 

perimeter. 

EXERCISE  XVI.  (Word-building— Greek  Prefixes,  p.  126). 

Show  the  value  of  the  prefixes  in — monologue,  Pantheon,  syllable, 
metathesis,  periosteum,  hyposulphite,  programme,  hyperbole,  hemiplegia, 
euphony,  synthesis,  Polynesia,  monarchy. 

EXERCISE  XVII.  (Word-building— English  Suffixes,  p.  128). 

Give  the  root  and  the  suffix  in  each  of  the  following : — 
Fodder,  trickster,   thrift,  baxter,  penmanship,  hammock,   loveliness, 
straddle,  sapling,  chippings,  sisterhood,  carter,  starling,  collier,  sawyer. 

EXERCISE  XVIII.  (Word-building— English  Suffixes,  p.  128). 

Explain  fully  the  suffixes  in  the  following : — 

Mi/ten,  earldom,  stealth,  breadth,  handicraft,  rimecmft,  drunkard, 
laddie,  hardship,  haft,  spindle,  shuttle,  brazier,  whiting,  hilt,  handle. 

EXERCISE  XIX.  (Word-building— English  Suffixes,  p.  128). 

Show  the  effect  of  the  suffix,  by  giving  the  meanings  of  the  follow- 
ing words  : — 

Frolicsome,  knotty,  drowned,  clayey,  woollen,  leeward,  awkward, 
scornful,  shamefaced,  saintlike,  knavish,  friendly,  Spanish,  bootless, 
swettish,  scuttled,  glad,  left. 

R 


238  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  XX.  (Word-building— English  Suffixes,  p.  128). 

In  the  following  adverbs  show  the  force  of  the  suffixes,  noting 
hybrids  in  passing  : —  ' 

Always,  straightway,  candidly,  duly,  once,  mysteriously,  nowise, 
sulkily,  stealthily,  sidelong,  seldom,  peculiarly. 


EXERCISE  XXI.   (Word-building— English  Suffixes,  p.  128). 

Show  the  effect  of  the  suffix  in  each  of  the  following  verbs  : — 
Stalk,  snivel,  falter,  strengthen,  Jlush,  twitter,  dribble,  trundle,  gush, 
glister,  blush,  draggle. 


EXERCISE  XXII.  (Word-building— Latin  and  French  Suffixes,  p.  134). 

In  the  following  nouns  show  the  value  of  each  suffix  : — 
Actor,  testament,  brigandage,  librarian,  consonant,  guttural,  resident, 
radiance,  patrimony,  tension,  lapidary,  graduate,  conduct,  presbytery. 


EXERCISE  XXIII.  (Word-building— Revision). 

Explain  each  of  the  component  parts  of  the  following  hybrids : — 
Colour,  frailty,  bigamy,   atonement,  oddment,    bondage,   starvation, 
foreigner,  bilingualism,  unjustly,  grandfather,  martyrdom,  ungrateful, 
handkerchief,  unconceitedly,  falsehood,  demigod,  witticism,  unacted,  art- 
ful, Cockneyism,  Bowdlerise,  blackguardism,  cerecloth,  druggist,  surname. 


EXERCISE  XXIV.  (Word-building— Revision). 

What  are  the  following  pairs  of  words  called  ?  Potion  and  poison  ; 
cadence  and  chance.  Give  the  corresponding  word  to  each  of  the 
following :  benison,  chattels,  malediction,  channel,  hotel,  redemption ; 
and  give  the  meanings  of  the  suffixes. 


EXERCISE  XXV.  (Word-building— Revision). 

Give  the  meaning  of  each  of  the  suffixes  in  the  following  ad- 
jectives : — 

Arabesque,  ratable,  torrid,  mundane,  sequent,  peninsular,  riparian, 
aromatic,  ductile,  pedantic,  submissive,  feminine,  virulent,  jocose,  vale- 
dictory, moribund,  umbrageous. 

EXERCISE  XXVI.  (Word-building— Revision). 

Arrange  the  following  words  and  their  doublets  in  two  columns, 
distinguishing  the  French  from  the  Latin ;  and  explain  the  suffixes 
in  the  words  and  the  doublets  you  supply: — Loyal,  regal,  fragile, 
caitiff,  second,  particle,  sample,  species. 


EXERCISES.  239 

EXERCISE  XXVII.  (Word-building—  Revision). 

In  the  following  verbs  explain  the  suffixes  : — 

Amplify,  expedite,  estimate,  coalesce,  deify,  publish,  pacify,  alienate, 
embellish,  permeate,  extinguish. 

EXERCISE  XXVIII.  (Word-building— Revision). 

Show  the  force  of  the  suffixes  in  the  following,  distinguishing 
between  the  Greek  and  hybrid  words  : — 

Axiomatic,  theorist,  philanthropy,  witticism,  theorist,  nepotism,  paral- 
ysis, deism,  pessimist,  panorama,  minimise. 

EXERCISE  XXIX.  (Word-building— English  Roots,  p.  144). 

Show  the  derivation  of  the  following,  carefully  noting  hybrids  : — 
Broth,  bough,  gnaw,  father,  bier,  brick,  know,  batch,  beetle,  kitten, 

quickset,  beadle,  chilblain,  net,  jetsam,  nickname,  borrow,  blush,  kind, 

mead,  bakery,  club,  bugle,  draught,  window,  eyelet. 

EXERCISE  XXX.  (Word-building— English  Roots,  p.  144). 

Derive  the  following  words  : — 

Nightingale,  orchard,  wright,  wrong,  grove,  whole,  trade,  stock,  taught, 
twig,  till,  garlic,  lady,  lodestar,  wake,  might,  nozzle,  stile,  scoop,  waddle, 
lair,  pickerel,  scuttle,  slog,  weft,  wanton,  reap,  scrape,  sleeve. 

EXERCISE  XXXI.  (Word-building— Latin  Roots,  p.  147). 

Select  from  the  following  Latin  words  those  coming  through  the 
French,  and  give  their  derivation  : — 

Inert,  claret,  ditto,  arcade,  precinct,  indent,  peal,  ancestor,  December, 
courage,  city,  meridian,  cordial,  clause,  deign,  donor,  April,  excuse, 
occur,  course,  damsel,  domineer,  chapter,  alto. 

EXERCISE  XXXII.  (Word-building— Latin  Roots,  p.  147). 

From  the  following  select  those  words  coming  direct  from  the 
Latin,  and  give  their  derivation  :  — 

Exculpate,  alimony,  reception,  altercation,  deception,  chant,  agile, 
miscreant,  agrarian,  excuse,  equinox,  brief,  cruise,  bissextile,  corpse, 
clamour,  eagir,  auction. 

EXERCISE  XXXIII.  (Word-building— Latin  Roots,  p.  147). 

From  the  following  list  select  the  words  coming  indirectly  from  the 
Latin,  and  give  their  derivation  : — 

Fount,  domiciliary,  colloquy,  mirage,  friar,  relict,  infringe,  liable, 
force,  religion,  affluent,  leaven,  flexible,  renegade,  collapse,  dismount, 
feat,  profile,  conjoint,  annex,  exhibit,  facet,  grateful,  memoir. 


240  EXERCISES. 

EXERCISE  XXXIV.  (Word-building— Latin  Roots,  p.  147). 

Select  the  words  of  direct  Latin  origin  : — 

Dormitory, fusible,  duhe,  profound,  ludicrous,  genteel,  manse,  redeem, 
gesture,  absolute,  aberration,  -progress,  scent,  probity,  poignant,  repair, 
quarry,  vow,  tense,  terrible,  urbane,  insidious,  sexton,  sacrilege, 
plausible. 

EXERCISE  XXXV.  (Word-building— Greek  Roots,  p.  152). 

Give  the  derivation  of  each  of  the  following  words  : — 
Date,  cosmetic,  surgeon,  nausea,  dogma,  economy,  dynamite,  catarrh, 
hematite,  idiot,  melancholy,  hieroglyphic. 

EXERCISE  XXXVI.  (Word-building -Greek  Roots,  p.  152). 

Give  two  roots  for  each  of  the  following  words: — 
Hypocrite,  aerolite,    demagogue,  onomatopoetic,  lithotomy,  tetrarch, 
kaleidoscope,  hydrophobia,  heliotrope,  catastrophe,  evangelist. 


EXERCISE  XXXVII.  (Word-building— Words  derived  from 
Names  of  Persons,  p.  154). 

State  the  origin  of  the  following  words  : — 

Lizard  Point,  panic,  tantalise,  petrel,  chimera,  cravat,  cicerone^ 
martinet,  dunce,  euphuistic,  saturnine,  hermetically. 

EXERCISE  XXXVIII.  (Word-building— Words  derived  from 
Names  of  Places,  p.  158). 

Trace  the  following  words  to  their  origin  : — 

Peach,  cherry,  damson,  rhubarb,  pheasant,  dollar,  florin,  guinea, 
solecism,  pistol,  laconic,  Utopian,  lumber. 

EXERCISE  XXXIX.  (Word-building— Disguised  Words,  p.  161). 

Show  the  origin  of  the  following  words  : — 

Babble,  intoxicate,  gadfly,  be/fry,  liquorice,  bustard,  luncheon,  easel, 
buttery,  custard,  sheaf,  carouse,  stirrup,  causeway,  treacle,  crayfish, 
verdigris. 

EXERCISE  XL.  (Word-building— Words  Changed  in 
Meaning,  p.  168). 

Compare  the  original  with  the  modern  meaning  of  the  following 
words  : — 

Sycophant,  allow,  restive,  gazette,  amuse,  handsome,  awkward,  knave, 
blackguard,  mere,  brat,  painful,  censure,  cunning,  preposterous,  silly, 
vivacity. 


ROCERCTSKS  241 


PLAN  FOR  PARSING. 
When  parsing  a  word  observe  the  following  rules : — 

(i)  Use  no  abbreviation  that  is  vague  ;  avoid  the  possibility  of  being 
misunderstood. 

(ii)  When  any  other  word  is  quoted,  underline  it,  or  use  marks  of 
quotation. 

(iii)  Use  the  following  terms,  when  applicable,  and  in  the  order  as 
arranged  : 

NOUNS. — KIND.     Proper;  Common;  Collective;  Abstract. 

GENDER.  Masculine;  Feminine;  Common;  Neuter. 

NUMBER.  Singular;  Plural. 

PERSON.  First;  Second;  Third. 

CASE.  Nominative,  subject  of  the  verb  ;  in  appo- 
sition  with   ;   of   address   (Vocative)  ; 

absolute ;  after  copulative  verb    . 

Possessive,  limiting  the  noun . 

Objective,   governed  directly  by  the   transitive, 
factitive,  causative,  prepositional,  or  cognate 

verb,  or  the  participle  ;    or  indirectly 

by  the  verb  or  participle  (Dative)  ;  or 

adverbial  object ;  or  governed  by  the  pre- 
position   ;  or  by  the  governing  Adjec- 
tive   ;  or  in  apposition  with . 

PRONOUNS.— KIND.  Personal;  Relative,  agreeing  with  its 
antecedent  in  gender,  person,  and  number; 
Interrogative  ;  Indefinite  ;  Reciprocal  ; 
Emphatic;  Reflexive; 

GENDER,  \ 

NUMBER,  ( 

PERSON,    f  **■"■■■ 

CASE. 


242  EXERCISES. 

ADJECTIVES. — KIND.     Qualitative,    positive,    comparative,    01 

superlative  degree,  going  with  the  noun ; 

Quantitative,    indefinite    or    definite,    nu- 
meral,  cardinal,  or  ordinal,   or  distributive, 

limiting    the  noun    ;    Demonstrative, 

pointing  out  the  noun  — — . 


VERBS. — CLASS.  Transitive  (active  or  passive  Voice); 
Intransitive  ; 
Auxiliary,  of  voice,  mood,  tense,  or  emphasis 

CONJUGATION.  Strong  or  Weak. 

MOOD.  Indicative,  assertive  or  interrogative  ; 

Imperative;  Subjunctive;  Infinitive  (nomina 
tive,  objective,  or  gerundial). 

TENSE.  Present;  Past;  Future.  Perfect  (complete), 
imperfect  (incomplete),  indefinite,  continuous 
(progressive). 


PERSON 
NUMBER. 


1     >      Agreeing  with  the  subject 


(PARTICIPLE)  (Active,  qualifying  the  noun  or  pronoun 

,  and   governing   the   noun  or  pronoun 

;  or  Passive). 


ADVERBS.— Of  TIME,  PLACE,  MANNER,  ASSERTION,  or  REA- 
SONING, modifying  the  verb ;  of  DEGREE 

modifying  the  adverb  or  adjective . 

DEGREE  of  comparison  (Pos. ;  Comp. ;  Sua.) 


PREPOSITIONS— SIMPLE  or  COMPOUND,  governing  the  nou* 
or  pronoun . 


CONJUNCTIONS.— CO-ORDINATE. 

SUBORDINATE. 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS.  243 

QUESTIONS    SET   AT    THE    ANNUAL    GOVEKN- 
MENT  EXAMINATION  OF  PUPIL-TEACHERS. 

CANDIDATES. 

SET  A. 

( You  are  advised  not  to  spend  more  than  one  hour  and  a  quarter  over- 
this  subject.) 

Answer  three  only  of  the  following  four  questions.     Full  marks  are  higher  for 
Questions  1  and  2  than  for  any  other  question. 

English  Grammar. 

1.  Analyse  the  following  passage  : — 

"The  cry  they  heard,  its  meaning  knew, 
Could  plain  their  distant  comrades  view." 

2.  Parse  the  words  in  italics  in  the  above  passage. 

3.  What  part  of  speech  is  each  of  the  following  words,  and  what 
is  the  force  of  the  suffix  ? — spinster,  darkness,  foolish,  active,  danger- 
ous, magnify. 

4.  Explain  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  "  Oh  for  one  hour  of  Wallace  wight 

Or  well-skill'd  Bruce,  to  rule  the  fight." 

(b)  "  And  now  I  watch  my  armour  here, 

By  law  of  arms,  till  midnight 's  near." 

(c)  "  Up  drawbridge,  grooms  ! — what,  Warder,  ho ! 

Let  the  portcullis  fall." 

Composition. 

Describe  the  Battle  of  Flodtlen  as  told  in  Marmion. 

SET  B— {Marmion). 

{You  are  advised  not  to  spend  more  than  one  hour  over  this  subject.) 

Answer  Question  1  and  two  other  questions.     Full  marks  are  higher  for  Questions  2 
and  3  than  for  Questions  4  and  5. 

1.  Give  the  substance  of  Wilton's  story,  or, 

Describe   the    scene   when    Marmion    was    leaving    Tantallon 
Castle. 

2.  Analyse  the  following  passage  : — 

"  With  that,  straight  up  the  hill  there  rode 
Two  horsemen  drenched  with  gore, 
And  in  their  arms  a  helpless  loadt 
A  wounded  knight  they  bore." 


244  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

3.  Parse  the  words  in  italics  in  the  above  passage. 

4.  Give  the  meaning  and  use  of  the  suffix  in  each  of  the  following 
words  : — Ukeivise,  visitor,  maiden,  landscape,  brightest,  wisdom. 

5.  Explain  : — 

(a)  "  More  pleased  that  in  a  barbarous  age 

He  gave  rude  Scotland  Virgil's  page." 

(b)  "Won  by  my  proofs,  his  falchion  bright 

This  eve  anew  shall  dub  me  knight." 

FIRST  YEAE  PUPIL-TEACHERS. 

SET  A. 

( You  are  advised  not  to  spend  more  than  one  hour  and  a  quarter  over 
this  subject.) 

Answer  three  only  of  the  following  four  questions.     Full  marks  are  higher  for 
Questions  1  and  2  than  for  any  other  question. 

English  Grammar. 

1.  Write,  in  your  own  words,  the  full  substance  of  the  following 
lines : — 

"Thus  every  good  his  native  wilds  impart 
Imprints  the  patriot  passion  on  his  heart : 
And  ev'n  those  hills,  that  round  his  mansion  rise, 
Enhance  the  bliss  his  scanty  fund  supplies. 
Dear  is  that  shed  to  which  his  soul  conforms, 
And  dear  that  hill  that  lifts  him  to  the  storms ; 
And  as  a  child,  when  scaring  sounds  molest, 
Clings  close  and  closer  to  the  mother's  breast, 
So  the  loud  torrent  and  the  whirlwind's  roar 
But  bind  him  to  his  native  mountains  more." 

2.  Analyse  the  last  four  lines,  and  parse  every  word  in  the  last  line. 

3.  Explain  : — 

"  Those  domes  where  Caesars  once  bore  sway." 

"The  canvas  glowed,  beyond  e'en  nature  warm, 
The  pregnant  quarry  teemed  with  human  form." 

"While  the  pent  ocean,  rising  o'er  the  pile, 
Sees  an  amphibious  world  beneath  him  smile." 

4.  Take  the  following  pairs  of  words  of  similar  meaning  and 
say  which  are  of  native  origin  and  which  are  derived  from  a 
foreign  language,  giving  the  language  where  you  can : — begin, 
commence :  benediction,  blessing  :  forefather,  ancestor :  feminine, 
womanly :  realm,  kingdom:  horseman,  cavalier. 

Composition. 

Give  a  short  account  of  Goldsmith's  life,  character,  friendships, 
and  works. 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  245 

SET  B— (Goldsmith's  Traveller). 

( You  are  advised  not  to  spend  more  than  one  hour  over  this  subject.) 

Answer  Question  1  or  Question  2  (not  both)  and  two  other  questions.    Full  marks 
are  higher  for  Question  3  than  for  Questions  4  and  5. 

1.  Give,  in  your  own  words,  the  character  of  the  Dutch  people  as 
described  by  Goldsmith. 

2.  Write,  in  your  own  words,  the  full  substance  of  the  following 
lines  : — 

M  To  men  of  other  minds  my  fancy  flies, 
Embosomed  in  the  deep  where  Holland  lies. 
Methinks  her  patient  sons  before  me  stand, 
Where  the  broad  ocean  leans  against  the  land, 
And,  sedulous  to  stop  the  coming  tide, 
Lift  the  tall  rampire's  artificial  pride. 
Onward,  methinks,  and  diligently  slow, 
The  firm  connected  bulwark  seems  to  grow ; 
Spreads  its  long  arms  amidst  the  watery  roar, 
Scoops  out  an  empire,  and  usurjs  the  shore." 

3.  Analyse  the  first  four  lines  of  this  passage,  and  parse  the  words 
in  italics. 

4.  Explain  : — 

(a)  "  Those  transitory  flowers  alike  undone 

By  proud  contempt  or  favour's  fostering  sun." 

(6)  "  That  like  the  circle  bounding  earth  and  skies 
Allures  from  far,  and,  as  we  follow,  flies." 

(c)  "  Where  lawns  extend  that  scorn  Arcadian  pride, 
And  brighter  streams  than  famed  Hydaspes  glide." 

5.  Give  the  etymology  and  meaning  of  vernal,  grandeur,  sympathetic, 
depopulation,  felicity. 

SECOND  YEAR  PUPIL-TEACHERS. 
SET  A. 

( You  are  advised  not  to  spend  more  than  one  hour  and  a  quarter  over 
this  subject. ) 

Answer  three  only  of  the  following  four  questions.    Full  marks  are  higher  for 
Questions  1  and  2  than  for  any  other  question. 

English  Grammar. 

1.  Write,  in  your  own  words,  the  full  substance  of  the  following 
passage : — 

"  That  you  do  love  me,  I  am  nothing  jealous  ; 
What  you  would  work  me  to,  I  have  some  aim  ; 
How  I  have  thought  of  this,  and  of  these  times, 
I  shall  recount  hereafter  :  for  this  present, 
I  would  not,  so  with  love  I  might  entreat  you, 
Be  any  farther  mov'd.     What  you  have  said, 


246  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

I  will  consider  ;  what  you  have  to  say, 

I  will  with  patience  hear,  and  find  a  time 

Both  meet  to  hear,  aud  answer,  such  high  things. 

Till  then,  my  noble  friend,  chew  upon  this  : 

Brutus  had  rather  be  a  villager, 

Than  to  repute  himself  a  son  of  Rome 

Under  these  hard  conditions,  as  this  time 

Is  like  to  lay  upon  us." 

2.  Analyse  the  lines  in  the  above  passage,  from  the  beginning  down 
to  "  hereafter,"  and  parse  all  the  words  in  the  first  lim. 

3.  Give  the  etymology  and  meaning  of  chivalry,  taptive,  particle, 
incorporate,  enfranchisement,  extenuated,  fantasy ,  slanderous. 

4.  Re-write  in  more  correct  form  the  following  sentences,  giving 
reasons  for  any  alterations  you  make : — 

(a)  We  will  do  like  they  did. 

(b)  Neither  of  the  three  were  present. 

(c)  This  is  the  best  of  the  two. 

(d)  We  wish  to  very  cordially  congratulate  you. 


Composition. 
Compare  the  characters  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  [Julius  Ccesar). 

SET  B— {Julius  Ccesar). 

(You  are  advised  not  to  spend  more  than  one  hour  over  this  subject.) 

Answer  Question  1  or  Question  2  (not  both)  and  two  other  questions.     Full  marks 
are  higher  for  Question  3  than  for  Questions  4  and  5. 

1.  Give  a  brief  account  of  Antony\   oration  over  Caesar's    body, 
and  account  for  its  effect  upon  the  people. 

2.  Write,  in  your  own  words,  tie  full  substance  of  the  following 
passage : — 

"  Cassius.  Ye  gods,  it  doth  amaze  me 

A  man  of  such  a  feeble  temper  should 
So  get  the  start  of  the  majestic  world, 
And  bear  the  palm  alone. 

Brutus.       Another  general  shout ! 

I  do  believe  that  these  applauses  are 

For  some  new  honours  that  are  heaped  on  Caesar- 

Cassius.     Why,  man,  he  doth  bestride  the  narrow  world 
Like  a  Colossus,  and  we  petty  men 
Walk  under  his  huge  legs  and  peep  about 
To  find  ourselves  dishonourable  graves. 
Men  at  some  time  are  masters  of  their  fates : 
The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 
But  in  ourselves  that  we  are  underlings." 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  247 

3.  Analyse  the  last  tbree  lines,  and  parse  the  words  in  italics. 

4.  Give  the  etymology  and  meaning  of  alchemy,  choleric,  proscrip- 
tion, exorcist,  cynic 

5.  Correct  the  following  expressions  and  give  your  reasons: — 

(a)  Friends  am  I  with  you  all. 

(b)  He  is  stronger  than  me. 

(c)  The  heat  was  simply  phenomenal. 

(d)  I  differ  with  you. 


SCHOLARSHIP  EXAMINATION. 
SET  A. 

( Two  hours  and  a  half  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

All  Candidates  must  answer  Question  1,  to  which  the  highest  marks  are  assigned, 
and  may  select  five,  and^ue  only,  of  the  rest. 

If  you  answer  more  than  six  questions,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  your 
paper  will  be  revised. 

No  abbreviation  of  less  than  three  letters  is  to  be  used  in  Parsing  or  Analysis. 

English  Language  and  Literature. 

1.  Analyse  the  following  passage,  and  parse  the  words  in  italics : — 

"  The  fairest  action  of  our  human  life 

Is  scorning  to  revenge  an  injury ; 
For  who  forgives  without  &  further  strife 

His  adversary's  heart  to  him  doth  tie  ; 
And  'tis  a  firmer  conquest  truly  said 

To  win  the  heart  than  overthrow  the  head." 

2.  Show  the  force  of  the  Latin  prefixes  de-,  re-,  con-,  pro-,  ob~t 
e(ex-),  ab~  by  reference  to  English  words  derived  from  the  compounds 
oijacio,  jactum  (I  throw  ;  in  composition,  -jicio,  -jectum). 

3.  Write  the  following  passage  in  blank  verse  : — 

"O  Proserpina  I  for  the  flowers  now,  that,  frighted,  thou  let'st 
fall  from  Dis's  waggon  !  daffodils,  that  come  before  the  swallow  dares, 
and  take  the  winds  of  March  with  beauty  ;  violets  dim,  but  sweeter 
than  the  lids  of  Juno's  eyes,  or  Cytherea's  breath ;  pale  primroses, 
that  die  unmarried  ere  they  can  behold  bright  Phoebus  in  his  strength, 
a  malady  most  incident  to  maidens ;  bold  oxlips,  and  the  crown- 
imperial  ;  lilies  of  all  kinds,  the  flower  de  luce  being  one." 

4.  How  would  you  vary  the  questions  in  English  for  Standard  II. 
so  as  to  avoid  monotony? 

5.  Explain,  by  reference  to  the  etymology,  the  metaphor  involved 
in  the  following  words  '.-—reducible,  precise,  conviction  (=firm  belief), 
benediction,  conference. 

6.  Sketch  briefly  the  plot  of  any  play  of  Shakespeare's  not 
directly  connected  with  English  history,  or  that  of  one  of  Scott's 
novels. 


248  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

7.  "An  adjective  is  a  word  which  describes  or  points  out  a  noun." 
Discuss  this  definition,  and,  if  you  think  it  bad,  say  wl  at  you  would 
substitute  for  it,  and  why. 

8.  What  new  words  have  been  added  to  the  language  as  a  result 
of  (1)  the  colonisation  of  North  America;  (2)  our  intercourse  with 
India  and  the  East  ? 

9.  Parse  fully  the  words  in  italic  type  below  :— 

(a)  Her  eyes  were  red  with  weeping. 

(b)  He  was  running  at  full  speed. 

(c)  While  waiting  for  the  train,  I  caught  a  cold. 

(d)  On  turning  round,  I  ran  against  him. 

(e)  Only  by  selling  his  horse  could  he  get  the  money  he 

wanted. 


SET  B. 

(Two  hours  and  a  half  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

All  Candidates  must  answer  Questions  1  or  2,  not  both,  to  which  the  highest  marks 
are  assigned,  and  may  select  Jive,  and  ./we  only,  of  the  rest. 

If  you  answer  more  than  six  questions,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  your 
paper  will  be  revised. 

No  abbreviation  of  less  than  three  letters  is  to  be  used  in  Parsing  or  Analysis. 

1.  Analyse  from  the  words  "There  is  a  tide"  to  "miseries"  in 
the  passage  below,  and  parse  the  words  in  italics  : — 

"  Our  legions  are  brim-full ;  our  cause  is  ripe  : 
The  enemy  increaseth  every  day. 
We,  at  the  height,  are  ready  to  decline. 
There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men 
Which,  taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune : 
Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  their  life 
Is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries. 
On  such  a  full  sea  are  we  now  afloat ; 
And  we  must  take  the  current  when  it  serves, 
Or  lose  our  ventures." 

2.  Analyse  the  last  four  lines  of  the  following  passage,  and  parse 
fully  the  words  in  italics  : — 

"  Heaven  from  all  creatures  hides  the  book  of  fate, 
All  but  the  page  prescribed  their  present  state, 
From  brutes  what  men,  from  men  what  angels  know  ; 
Or  who  could  suffer  being  here  below  ? 
The  lamb  thy  riot  dooms  to  bleed  to-day, 
Had  he  thy  reason  would  he  skip  and  play  ? 
Pleased  to  the  last  he  crops  the  flowery  food, 
And  licks  the  hand  just  raised  to  shed  his  blood." 

3.  Define  (1)  an  adjective;  (2)  an  adverb. 

Explain  the  use  of  the  words  "briir-full,"  "ripe,"  "afloat"  in  the 
passage  contained  in  Question  1. 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  249 

4.  Make  a  list  of  all  the  Latin  and  English  prefixes  and  suffixes 
in  the  two  passages  given  in  Questions  1  and  2,  and  explain  their 
effect. 

5.  What  parts  of  the  principal  verb  are  used  together  with  an 
auxiliary  in  forming  the  compound  tenses  ? 

Explain  the  use  of  the  infinitive  mood  for  this  purpose. 

6.  In  what  two  ways  are  sentences  connected  by  conjunctions? 
Give  some  rule  for  the  use  of  the  conditional  mood  in  subordinate 

sentences.     Illustrate  your  answer  by  examples. 

7.  "But  little  do  Men  perceive  what  Solitude  is,  and  how  far 
it  extendeth :  for  a  Crowd  is  not  Company,  and  Faces  are  but  a 
gallery  of  pictures,  and  Talk  is  but  a  tinkling  cymbal  where  there  is 
no  Love." — Bacon. 

Write  briefly  in  your  own  words  the  meaning  of  this  passage. 

What  difference  in  expression  from  the  current  literature  of  the 
present  day  do  you  notice  ? 

What  quotation  does  the  passage  contain,  and  whence  was  it 
taken  ? 

8.  The  English  language  contains  many  words  akin  to  German 
words,  and  a  considerable  number  derived  from  Latin  words. 

Explain  this  statement  (noting  especially  the  words  in  italics),  and 
give  a  few  illustrations  taken  from  the  passages  you  have  learned  to 
recite  or  the  works  you  have  been  directed  to  read. 

9.  Mention  some  of  the  works  written  by  four  of  the  following, 
and  say  in  what  century  they  lived: — Addison,  Bacon,  Bunyan, 
Cowper,  Johnson,  Milton,  Pope,  Scott. 


SET  C. 

(Two  and  a  half  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

All  Candidates  must  answer  Question  1  or  2,  not  both,  to  which  the  highest  marks 
are  assigned,  and  may  select  Jive,  and  five  only,  of  the  rest. 

If  you  answer  more  than  six  questions,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  your 
paper  will  be  revised. 

No  abbreviation  of  less  than  three  letters  is  to  be  used  in  Parsing  or  Analysis. 

1.  Analyse  the  passage  from  "  Mortals  "  to  the  end  of  the  following 
passage.     Parse  the  words  in  italics  : — 

M  But  now  my  task  is  smoothly  done, 
I  can  fly,  or  I  can  run 
Swiftly  to  the  green  earth's  end, 
Where  the  bowed  welkin  slow  doth  bend, 
And  from  thence  can  soar  as  soon 
To  the  corners  of  the  moon. 
Mortals  that  would  follow  me, 
Love  Virtue  ;  she  alone  is  free. 
She  can  teach  ye  how  to  climb 
Higher  than  the  sphery  chime  ; 
Or  if  virtue  feeble  were, 
Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her." 


250  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

2.  Analyse  the  first  four  lines  of  the  following  passage,  and  parse 
the  words  in  italics  : — 

"  This  was  the  noblest  Roman  of  them  all : 
All  the  conspirators,  save  only  he, 
Did  that  they  did  in  envy  of  great  Csesar  ; 
He,  only,  in  a  general  honest  thought 
And  common  good  to  all,  made  one  of  them. 
His  life  was  gentle  ;  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up, 
And  say  to  all  the  World,  '  this  was  a  man !  ' " 

3.  Define  a  relative  pronoun.  What  is  the  rule  for  (a)  its  number, 
(b)  its  easel  Illustrate  by  examples  from  the  preceding  passages. 
Can  you  give  any  rule  for  the  use  of  "that"  instead  of  "who"  or 
"  which  "  ? 

4  Write  sentences  showing  the  use  of  each  of  the  following  words 
as  (1)  an  adverb;  (2)  a  preposition ;  (3)  a  conjunction,  viz.: — after, 
before,  since. 

5.  Explain  the  force  of  the  termination  -ing  in  the  following  sen- 
tences : — 

He  is  building  a  new  house. 
The  new  house  is  a-building. 
He  is  tired  of  building  houses. 

How  do  you  parse  the  word  building  in  each  case  ? 

6.  Give  the  meaning  and  the  origin  of  the  following  prefixes  and 
suffixes : — 


(a)  Prefixes : 


(6)  Suffixes: 


a  "  in  away,  aware,  ago  ; 
1  for  "  in  forsake,  forlorn,  forgive  ; 
1  un  "  in  uncouth,  unto,  undo. 


:  ment "  in  parchment,  parliament ; 
"some  "  in  handsome,  wholesome  ; 
"  ster  "  in  spinster,  maltster. 

7.  Distinguish  between  a  compound  and  a  complex  sentence. 
What  are  the  appropriate  connecting  particles  of  the  component 
members  of  each  kind  of  sentence  ? 

Illustrate  your  answer  by  references  to  either  of  the  passages  in 
Question  1  or  2. 

8.  "Revenge  is  a  kind  of  wild  justice  which  the  more  men's  nature 
runs  to,  the  more  ought  law  to  weed  it  out.  For  as  for  the  first 
wrong,  it  doth  but  offend  the  law,  but  the  revenge  of  that  wrong 
putteth  the  law  out  of  office.  Certainly  in  taking  revenge  a  man  is 
but  even  with  his  enemy,  but  in  passing  it  by  he  is  superior,  for  it  is 
a  prince's  part  to  pardon." — Bacon. 

Write  briefly  in  your  own  words  the  meaning  of  this  passage,  and 
explain  any  expressions  which  appear  to  you  to  be  obsolete.  What 
ellipsis  follows  "superior  "  ? 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS.  251 

9.  (a)  Mention  four  of  the  most  celebrated  authors  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  give  an  account  of  any  one  among  their  works  ; 

or 

(6)  Name  the  authors  of  the  passages  contained  in  Questions  1  and 
2,  and  give  a  short  life  of  one  of  them. 


SET  D. 

(Two  and  a  half  hours  allowed  for  thte  paper.) 

All  Candidates  must  answer  Question  1,  and  may  answer  six  questions  in  all,  but 
not  more  than  three  may  be  taken  from  either  section. 

If  you  answer  more  than  six  questions,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  your 
paper  will  be  revised. 

No  abbreviation  of  less  than  three  letters  is  to  be  used  in  Parsing  or  Analysis. 

Section  I. — Language. 

1.  Analyse  one  of  the  following  passages,  and  parse  the  words  in 
italics  in  the  passage  analysed  : — 

(a)  "...  All  this  tract  that  fronts  the  falling  sun 

A  noble  Peer  of  mickle  trust  and  power 

Has  in  his  charge,  with  tempered  awe  to  guide 

An  old  and  haughty  nation,  proud  in  arms." — Comus. 

(b)  "  Who  noble  ends  by  noble  means  obtains, 

Or  failing,  smiles  in  exile  or  in  chains, 
Like  good  Aurelius  let  him  reign,  or  bleed 
Like  Socrates,  that  man  is  great  indeed." 

— Essay  on  Man,  IV. 

(c)  "  Would  I  hadfalfn  upon  those  happier  days 

That  poets  celebrate  :  those  golden  times 

And  those  Arcadian  scenes  that  Maro  sings, 

And  Sidney,  warbler  of  poetic  prose." — The  Task. 

2.  Explain,  as  to  a  class,  sentence  by  sentence,  the  meaning  of 
one  of  the  above  passages,  and  comment  on  any  words  and  allusions 
that  call  for  notice. 

3.  In  what  metre  is  each  of  the  above  passages  written  ?  If  they 
are  not  alike,  point  out  the  difference.  Illustrate  your  answer  by 
writing  a  line  from  each,  showing  its  division  into  feet. 

4.  Distinguish,  giving  examples,  between  Indicative  and  Subjunc- 
tive mood,  Gerund  and  Participle,  Complex  and  Compound  sentence, 
Simile  and  Metaphor. 

5.  At  what  periods  have  Latin  words  been  introduced  into 
English,  either  directly  or  indirectly  ?  Give  a  few  examples  under 
each  head. 

6.  Certain  nouns,  adjectives,  and  verbs  require  special  preposi- 
tions, which  in  some  cases  vary  according  to   sense   and   context. 


252  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 

What  prepositions  are  used  with  the  following  ?      Give  short  sen- 
tences to  illustrate  their  use  : — 

Nouns.  Adjectives.                           Verbs. 

Accord.  Adapted.  Agree. 

Affinity.  Convenient.  Confer. 

Exception.  Different.  Confide. 

Taste.  Glad.  Differ. 

Section  II. — Literature. 

7.  Under  what  circumstances,  and  when,  was  Comus  written? 
Give  a  short  summary  of  the  end  of  the  poem  from  the  invocation  of 
Sabrina  onwards. 

8.  Write  brief  notes  on  the  following  passages  : — 
(a)  "  The  gray-hooded  Even, 

Like  a  sad  votarist  in  palmer's  weed." 

(6)  "  Scylla  wept, 

And  chid  her  barking  waves  into  attention, 
And  fell  Charybdis  murmured  soft  applause." 

(c)  "  Oh  foolishness  of  men  !  that  lend  their  ears 

To  those  budge  doctors  of  the  Stoic  fur, 

And  fetch  their  precepts  from  the  Cynic  tub  !  " 

(d)  "  Where  the  bowed  welkin  slow  doth  bend." 

9.  Explain  shortly  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)   "  What  can  eDnoble  sots,  or  slaves,  or  cowards? 
Alas  !  not  all  the  blood  of  all  the  Howards. " 

(6)  "  Think  how  Bacon  shined, 

The  wisest,  brightest,  meanest  of  mankind." 

(c)    "  From  dirt  and  seaweed  as  proud  Venice  rose." 

10.  Give  in  plain  prose  the  meaning  of  the  following  passage : — 

"  111  fares  the  traveller  now,  and  he  that  stalks 
In  ponderous  boots  beside  his  reeking  team  : 
The  wain  goes  heavily,  impeded  sore 
By  congregated  loads  adhering  close 
To  the  clogged  wheels,  and  in  its  sluggish  pace 
Noiseless  appears  a  moving  hill  of  snow. 
The  toiling  steeds  expand  the  nostril  wide, 
While  every  breath,  by  respiration  strong 
Forced  downward,  is  consolidated  soon 
Upon  their  jutting  chests." 

11.  Give  briefly  the  substance  of  Cowper's  contrast  between  town 
and  country  life,  or  his  account  of  the  winter  evening  occupations  at 
Olney. 

12.  Name  Pope's  chief  works.  When  and  with  what  object  was 
the  Essay  on  Man  written  ?     Explain  the  lines  : — 

"  Come,  then,  my  Friend  !  my  Genius  !  come  along  ; 
Oh  master  of  the  poet  and  the  song  ! " 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  253 


COMPOSITION  SUBJECTS. 

SETA. 

Write  a  letter,  or  an  essay,  on  one  of  the  following  subjects : — 

(a)  Singing  birds. 

(b)  Fairy  tales. 

(<•)  Best  ways  of  spending  holidays. 

(d)  Advantages  of  the  study  and  knowledge  of  geography. 

SET  B. 

Write  a  tetter,  or  an  essay,  on  one  of  the  following  subjects : — 
(a)  Your  favourite  flowers,  and  the  way  to  cultivate  them. 
(6)  The  moral  lessons  of  the  microscope  and  the  telescope. 

(c)  The  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  town  life  as  compared 

with  life  in  the  country. 

(d)  Examinations. 

SET  C. 

(a)  Write  a  letter  descriptive  of  the  town  or  village  in  which  you 

live,  or  of  any  famous  building  in  or  near  it ;  or, 

(b)  Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  topics : — 
(i)  Truthfulness,  in  act  and  word. 

(ii)  Poetry, 
(iii)  The  King  rules  over  an  Empire  on  which  the  sun  never  sets. 

SET  D. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  topics  *— 
(i)  A  ship  on  fire, 
(ii)  Closer  union  with  our  colonies, 
(iii)  A  walk  round  a  garden. 

SET  E. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  topics : — 
(a)  Good  manners. 

(6)  The    importance    of   the    telegraph    and    telephone  from    a 
commercial  point  of  view. 

(c)  The  advantages  of  a  school  library  for  the  children.     (Name 

a  dozen  good  books  which  should  be  found  in  every 
such  library. ) 

S 


254  EXAMINATION  QUESTIONS. 

SET  F. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  subjects  : — 

(a)  Any  memorable  place,  city,  castle,  or  battlefield  which  you 

have  visited. 
(6)  The  use  of  pictures  in  teaching. 
(c)  Colonisation. 

SET  G. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  subjects  :— 

(a)  Some  uses  of  the  electric  telegraph. 

(b)  A  court  of  justice. 

(c)  Emigration. 

SET  H. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  subjects  :— 

(a)  The  influence  of  war  on  a  nation ;  or, 

(b)  Fruit  trees  ;  or, 

(c)  The  census. 

SET  I. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  : — 
A  general  election  ;  or, 

Give  in  substance  the  contents  of  any  interesting  book  which 
you  have  recently  read. 

SET  J. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  these  subjects  :— 

(a)  Holidays,  and  the  way  to  use  them. 

(b)  Parliament. 

(c)  Tragedy  and  comedy. 

SET  K. 

Do  one  of  the  following,  either 

(a)  Write  a  short  essay  on  the  value  of  the  Study  of  History ;  or, 

(b)  Write  a  short  essay  on  "Play"  ;  or, 

(c)  Write  out  briefly  the  plot  of  one  of  Shakespeare's  comedies. 

SET  L. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  the  following  subjects  : — 

(a)  "  Words  are  like  leaves ;  and  when  they  most  abound 

Much  fruit  of  sense  beneath  is  rarely  found." 
(6)  Your  favourite  pursuit. 

{c)  Christmas    day    on    board    an    English    ship    in    the    Polar 
Regions. 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  255 


SET  M. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  the  following  subjects  :— 

(a)  "  Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast ; 

Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest. " 

(b)  The  Japanese. 

(c)  How  may  the  spirit  of  patriotism  be  promoted  in  elementary 

schools  ? 

SET  N. 

Write  a  short  essay  on  one  of  the  following  subjects : — 

(a)  How  far  is  it  true     hat  history  is  the  biography  of  great 

men? 
(6)  Strikes, 
(c)  Dress  as  an  evidence  of  character. 

SET  0. 

Write  a  short  composition  on  one  of  the  following : — 
(a)  A  short  life  of  some  great  naval  or  military  hero. 
(6)  "  The  darkest  day, 

Wait  till  to-morrow,  will  have  passed  away." 
(c)  Give  an  account  of  the  life  and  works  of  the  author  of  the 
passage  you  have  learned  to  recite. 

SET  P. 

Write  a  short  composition  on  one  of  the  following : — 

(a)  The  pleasures  of  gardening. 

(b)  The  life  of  the  teacher :  its  difficulties  and  its  ideals. 

(c)  The    ground    of    justification    for    each    of    the    contending 

parties  in  tho  European  War  of  1914. 


SET  Q. 

Write  a  short  composition  on  one  of  the  following  subjects : — 

(a)  A  comparison  of  town  and  country  life  (which  you  would 

prefer,  and  why). 
(6)  A  winter  landscape, 
(c)  "Great  offices  will  have  (t.e.  need)  great  talents." — Cowper. 


256  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 


LONDON   MATRICULATION  QUESTIONS. 

SET  A. 
(Not  more  than  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

1.  Draw  a  table  showing  the  position  of  English  in  the  Germanic 
family  of  languages. 

2.  What  is  meant  by  the  distinction  between  "  learned  *  and 
"  popular  "  borrowed  words  ?  Under  what  circumstances  have  Latin 
words  at  various  times  been  borrowed  in  English?  Refer  in  your 
answer  to  the  above  distinction. 

3.  Show,  if  possible  with  a  table,  what  vowel-sounds  are  used  in 
ordinary  spoken  English. 

4.  Classify  nouns  according  to  their  meaning,  and  illustrate  the 
passage  of  nouns  from  one  class  to  another. 

5.  Write  down  (i)  six  illustrations  of  Grimm's  Law  ;  (ii)  six 
apparent  exceptions  to  it,  commenting  upon  the  latter. 

6.  Give  the  force  of  the  suffixes  which  occur  in  the  following 
words,  commeuting  upon  any  anomaly  in  the  form  or  meaning  of 
each  : — witness,  childhood,  girdle,  lawyer,  gosling,  rookery. 

7.  Give  a  short  account  of  the  comparison  of  adjectives  in 
English. 

8.  Show,  accurately,  how  the  following  cognate  words  are  dis- 
tinguished, and  also  bow  they  are  connected,  in  meaning  : — corps, 
corpse  ;  gage,  wage  ;  diamond,  adamant ;  cage,  cave  ;  dish,  desk,  disc, 
dais  ;  priest,  presbyter. 

9.  Enumerate  the  pronominal  and  adverbial  forms  derived  from 
the  stem  of  here,  and  show,  generally,  how  each  comes  to  have  its 
present  meaning. 

10.  Point  out  any  defects  in  the  grammar  or  style  of  the 
following : — 

(a)  Homer   was  not  only  the  maker  of  a  nation,  but  of  a 

language. 
(6)  He  is  better  versed  in  theology  than  any  living  man. 

(c)  Shakespeare  frequently  has  passages  in  a  strain  quite  false, 

and  which  are  entirely  unworthy  of  him. 

(d)  Nothing  can  hinder  this  treatise  from  being   one  of  the 

most  considerable  books  which  has  appeared  for  the  last 
half -century. 
(«)  A  statute,  inflicting  the  punishment  of  death,  may  be,  and 
ought  to  be,  repealed,  if  it  be  in  any  degree  expedient. 

11.  Analyse  the  following: — "So  eager  was  the  queen  that  her 
story  should  be  believed,  that  nothing  so  much  pleased  her  as  an 
indication  that  credit  was  attached  to  it." 

12.  Give  two  examples  each  of  (i)  strong  verbs  which  have  become 
weak ;  (ii)  weak  verbs  which  have  become  strong  j  (iii)  strong  par- 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  257 

ticiples  which  have  been  assimilated  to   the  preterite  ;    (iv)  strong 
preterites  which  have  been  assimilated  to  the  participle. 

13.  Explain  and  illustrate  the  laws  or  principles  involved  in  the 
formation  of  the  following  words  : — causeway,  book-learned,  hindmost, 
thirteen,  piecemeal,  darkling. 

14.  Show,  summarily,  in  what  various  ways  adverbs  have  been 
formed  in  English. 

15.  Give  a  summary  view  of  the  various  ways  in  which  the 
vocabulary  of  a  language  may  be  enlarged,  with  illustrations  from 
English. 


SETB. 

(Not  more  than  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

I.  Classify  the  Teutonic  and  Romance  words  in  the  following 
passage  ;  comment  on  your  classification,  and  write  brief  notes  on 
the  history  of  any  Jive  words  : — 

m  The  cowardly  wretches  followed  the  weary  travellers  demanding 
alms.  Their  menaces  revealed  their  true  character,  and  there  was 
soon  no  alternative  but  to  hand  them  the  few  remaining  possessions ; 
the  foot-sore  pilgrims  were  not  allowed  to  keep  even  their  meagre 
victuals  for  the  day.  At  all  events,  starvation  would  end  the 
miseries  of  their  toilsome  life." 

2  Explain,  carefully,  what  is  meant  by  the  following  terms: — 
(i)  Anglo-Saxon  ;  (ii)  Anglo-French  ;  (iii)  Hybrids  ;  (iv)  Alliteration  ; 
(v)  Rhythm;  (vi)  Metaphor. 

3.  Give  a  biief  account  of  the  process  of  inflexional  levelling  in 
English. 

4.  Enumerate,  with  instances,  the  various  ways  of  indicating 
gender  in  English.     Write  a  careful  note  on  the  word  "songstress." 

5.  Trace  the  history  of  the  third  personal  pronoun,  singular  and 
plural. 

6.  Differentiate  the  following,  both  as  regards  usage  and  origin  : — 
further,  farther;  later,  latter;  older,  elder;  outer,  utter;  foremost, 
first. 

7.  Define  : — (i)  Infinitive ;  (ii)  Gerund  ;  (iii)  Participle ;  (iv) 
Mood;  (v)   Voice;  (vi)  Auxiliary  Verbs;  (vii)  Strong-weak  Verbs. 

8.  Account  clearly  for  the  present  and  past  tense  forms  of  the 
chief  auxiliary  verbs.  Explain  the  modern  use  of  "  shall "  and 
"  w'dl" 

9.  Classify  the  weak  verbs,  and  explain  the  following  forms: — 
taught,  sold,  sought,  fed,  felt, 

10.  Annotate  the  following  statement : — "  Words  originally  other 
parts  of  speech  arc  sometimes  used  as  conjunctions." 

II.  What  are  "Synonyms"?  Account  for  their  origin.  Give 
some  examples,  and  discriminate  their  use. 

12.  Explain  the  force  and  origin  of  the  following  suffixes :— ship, 
en,  ly,  ness,  y.     Give  instance*. 


258    v  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

13.  Analyse  t — 

"  So  please  your  majesty,  I  -would  I  could 
Quit  all  offences  with  as  clear  excuse 
As  well  as  I  am  doubtless  I  can  purge 
Myself  of  many  I  am  charged  withal." 

14.  In  what  important  respects  does  the  diction  of  poetry  differ 
from  that  of  prose?     Add  brief  illustrative  sentences. 

15.  What  is  meant  by  Blank  Verse?     Write  down  and  discuss  any 
ten  lines. 


SET  C. 
(Not  more  than  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

1.  Enumerate  the  principal  Indo-European  languages,  and  indicate, 
by  description  or  diagram,  how  English  is  related  to  Italian,  Sanskrit, 
Dutch,  Erse. 

2.  At  what  periods  have  Latin  words  been  largely  borrowed  ? 
Give  six  examples  from  living  English  of  words  so  borrowed  at  each 
period,  and  show  what  class  of  the  vocabulary  was  at  each  period 
chiefly  affected  by  such  borrowing. 

3.  Illustrate  the  borrowing  of  words  either  from  Celtic  or  from 
Scandinavian  sources  into  English. 

4.  Give  a  short  account  of  existing  case-forms  in  English,  and  also 
of  some  which  no  longer  survive  as  cases. 

5.  Explain  the  italicised  letters  in  the  following  words: — advan- 
tage, scent,  de&t,  frontispiece,  cou^d,  ancient. 

6.  What  peculiarities,  of  form  or  meaning,  in  the  expression  of 
relations  of  number,  are  illustrated  by  the  following  ? — score,  triple, 
hundred,  first,  second,  million. 

7.  Distinguish,  with  illustrations,  as  many  as  you  can  of  the 
different  senses  of  one. 

8.  Trace  the  origin  of  who,  which,  and  that  as  relative  pronouns, 
and  define  their  usage  in  modern  English. 

9.  Distinguish  the  origin  of  the  suffix  y  in  the  following  words  : — 
jury,  body,  jolly,  army,  wordy,  jelly. 

10.  Explain  carefully  what  is  meant  by  the  past-present  or  strong- 
weak  verbs,  giving  the  reason  for  each  name. 

11.  Analyse  the  -ing  forms  in  the  following  sentences  : — 

The  house  is  building. 

He  is  making  his  mark. 

He  is  tired  of  writing  letters. 

12.  Explain  the  structure  and  meaning  of  the  following  : — each, 
every,  any,  about,  either,  or. 

13.  In  what  different  ways  are  adverbs  formed  in  English? 

14.  Illustrate  the  different  senses  of  with,  by,  at,  of,  for.  Which 
of  them  are  also  conjunctions  ?     Which  adverbs  ? 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  259 

15.  Illustrate  the  ways  in  which  literary  and  educated  English  has 
been  recently  reinforced  by  the  introduction  of  words  from  dialects, 
technical  terminology,  and  slang. 


SET  D. 

{Not  more  than  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

1.  Show  briefly  that  the  English  language  is  of  Teutonic  origin, 
and  also  that  during  the  last  thousand  years  it  has  been  influenced 
by  certain  other  Teutonic  languages. 

2.  How  has  it  happened  that  we  have  Dorrowed  so  largely  from 
foreign  languages  instead  of  building  words  for  ourselves  ?  What 
home-spun  terms  might  we  have  had  for  "  astronomy,"  "arithmetic,'" 
"  autumn,"  "  agriculture,"  "  library  "  ? 

3.  Mention  some  of  our  earliest  borrowings  from  the  Latin,  and 
prove  by  a  few  examples  that  we  have  gone  on  incessantly  borrowing 
from  it 

4.  Illustrate  the  influence  of  Norman-French  on  our  spelling  and 
our  pronunciation.  Write  down  some  words  that  we  owe  to  other 
Romance  languages. 

5.  Make  a  list  of  some  twenty  additions  made  to  our  vocabulary 
during  the  twentieth  century,  and  point  out  the  movements,  or 
fashions,  or  tendencies  that  have  made  them  necessary. 

6.  What  traces  are  there  in  our  present  grammar  of  more  than 
one  declension  of  nouns  ?  Discuss  the  apostrophe  in  such  forms  as 
"stone's,"  "church's,"  "St.  James'." 

7.  Indicate  some  distinction  or  distinctions  between  the  uses  of  the 
relatives  who  and  that.  What  other  word  has  sometimes  a  relatival 
force  ?     Give  examples  of  the  omission  of  the  relative. 

8.  Mention  some  verbs  now  of  the  weak  conjugation  that  once 
were  of  the  strong,  and  vice  versd.  Mention  also  some  verbs  of 
mixed  conjugation ;  show  that  tell  is  not  so.  About  how  many 
strong  verbs  are  there  extant  ? 

9.  Mention  some  verbs  that  have  no  change  of  form  in  the  preterite 
and  in  the  past  participle  ;  also  some  that  are  defective  ;  also  some 
that  are  irregular. 

10.  Give  some  account  of  the  etymology  of  adverbs.  Comment  on 
the  forms  rather,  piecemeal,  too,  very,  farther. 

11.  Explain  the  a  in  aboard,  amend,  ado,  arise,  adown,  along,  alas, 
apace,  aware,  avert. 

12.  Derive  these  words  : — lone,  street,  king,  church,  engine,  month, 
University,  degree,  college,  matriculation. 

13.  Distinguish,  giving  examples,  the  senses  and  usages  of  elder 
and  older,  of  continuous  and  continual,  rustic  and  rural,  sensibility  and 
sensitiveness,  temporal  and  temporary.  Are  there  such  things  as 
"synonyms"  ? 


260  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 

14.  Describe  any  English  dialect  with  which  you  are  acquainted, 
and  state  what  you  know  of  its  origin. 

15.  Criticise  and  revise  the  following  sentences: — 

(a)  Few  of  his  friends,  except  myself,  know  of  his  being  in 

the  kingdom. 

(b)  The  guinea  places  were   better   filled   than   the   half- 

guinea,  and  not  a  jot  better. 

(c)  The   captain    took    the   good    things    which   the   gods 

provided  with  thankful  good  humour. 

(d)  To  aim  at  public  and  private  good  are  so  far  from  being 

inconsistent  that  they  mutually  promote  each  other. 

(e)  Your  Englishman  is  just  as  serious  in  his  sports  as  in 

any  act  of  his  life. 
(/)  He  regretted  that  the  pupil-teacher  did  not  prevent  the 
boys  from  writing  so  fast,  as  he  noticed  that  is  done 
in  the  absence  of  such  immediate  supervision  as  the 
master,  otherwise  engaged,  would  have  prevented. 


SET  E. 

{Not  more  than  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

X..  Give  a  summary  account  of  the  various  sources  of  English 
speech,  so  far  as  vocabulary  is  concerned,  and  explain  carefully  why, 
in  spite  of  the  various  elements,  the  language  is  grouped  with  the 
Teutonic  branch  of  Indo-European. 

2.  Explain  carefully  the  following  terms  : — (i)  Anglo-Saxon  ;  (ii) 
Anglo-French  ;  (iii)  synonym  ;  (iv)  homophone  ;  (v)  inflexion ;  (vi) 
case;  (vii)  prosody;  (viii)  syntax  ;  (ix)  metaphor  ;  (x)  simile. 

How  do  "  synonyms  "  arise,  and  how  may  they  be  differentiated  ? 
Give  instances. 

3.  (i)  Quote  ten  lines  of  blank  verse  ;  (ii)  underline  all  the  words 
borrowed,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  Latin  ;  (iii)  write  brief  etymo- 
logical notes  on  each  of  the  underlined  words  ;  and  (iv)  on  any  six 
other  words  in  the  passage  quoted. 

4.  Tabulate  the  vowel-sounds  now  used  in  educated  English  (using 
symbols  if  possible),  and  add  illustrative  words. 

5.  Classify  the  chief  of  the  various  suffixes  which  appear  in  English. 
Give  illustrative  instances. 

6.  Give  an  account  of  the  various  ways  of  forming  number  in 
modern  English  ;  comment  on  the  obsolete  processes,  and  account  for 
the  use  of  s  as  the  ordinary  plural  inflexion. 

7.  Write  down  (i)  two  comparatives  which  have  no  corresponding 
positive  forms  ;  (ii)  three  positives  which  have  no  corresponding 
comparatives  ;  (iii)  one  instance  of  a  comparative  used  as  a  positive  ; 
and  (iv)  one  instance  of  a  double  superlative.  Explain  carefully  each 
instance. 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS.  261 

8.  Sketch  the  history  of  the  Relative  Pronouns  ;  differentiate  their 
use  in  m  >dern  English,  adding  illustrative  sentences. 

9.  Write  historical  notes  on  the  following  forms  : — (i)  she  ;  (ii)  its; 
(iii)  their;  (iv)  hers;  (v)  him;  (vi)  why;  (vii)  you;  (viii)  there; 
(ix)  not. 

10.  Group,  according  to  any  scheme  you  may  prefer,  the  strong 
verb  forms  existing  in  modern  English.  Annotate  your  instances, 
where  necessary.     Discuss  the  following  : — 

"  Sweetly  we  sang, 
and  he  sung  too, 
but  our  sweet  song 
we  soon  did  rue." 

11.  Explain  carefully  the  various  tenses  which  a  verb  should  be 
capable  of  expressing.     In  what  respects  is  English  deficient  ? 

12.  Distinguish  the  uses  of  the  ending  -ing.  Add  brief  historical 
notes. 

1 3.  In  what  ways  may  the  different  parts  of  speech  be  put  together 
by  composition  ?     Give  one  instance  in  each  class. 

14.  Discuss  eight  words  called  into  existence  by  recent  discoveries 
or  inventions. 

15.  Analyse  the  following  : — 

tl  I  am  alone  the  villain  of  the  earth, 
And  feel  I  am  so  most.      O  Antony, 
Thou  mine  of  bounty,  how  wouldst  thou  have  paid 
My  better  service,  when  my  turpitude 
Thou  dost  so  crown  with  gold  !  " 


SET  F. 

(Do  not  attempt  to  answer  more  than  seven  of  the  first  ten 
questions,  or  more  than  three  of  the  last  five.  Great  im- 
portance will  be  attached  to  clearness  and  accuracy  of  expres- 
sion and  style.) 

1.  Prove  from  the  present  state  of  its  vocabulary  and  grammar 
that  the  English  language  is  of  Teutonic  origin. 

2.  Mention  words  we  have  borrowed  from  the  Hebrew,  the 
Chinese,  the  Modern  German,  the  Arabic,  the  Portuguese,  and  the 
Russian  languages  ;  and  explain  how  we  came  to  borrow  them. 

3.  In  what  ways  do  we  now  supply  ourselves  with  new  words 
when  they  are  wanted  ?     Give  instances. 

4.  Classify  consonants  according  to  the  organ  chiefly  used  in 
sounding  them.  In  what  other  ways  may  they  be  classified  ?  Explain 
the  pronunciation  of  the  italicised  letters  in  the  words  cupboard, 
legs,  adjourn,  houses,  stooped. 

5.  Write  down  five  noun  forms  that  though  originally  plural  are 
now  used  as  singulars,  and  five  that  were  originally  singulars  but 
are  now  used  as  plurals,  and  five  that  are  double  plurals. 


262  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 

6.  Mention  ten  adjectives  that  are  used  as  nouns  and  even  have 
the  plural  flexion. 

7.  Attempt  some  classification  of  strong  verbs.     What  is  noticeable 
about  the  flexions  of  rot,  melt,  lead,  hang,  clothe,  sow  ? 

8.  Give  five  instances   of  adverbs  used  predicatively,  and  five  of 
prepositions  used  verbally. 

9.  Discuss  the   words   but  and  so,  and  make   examples   of   their 
various  uses. 

10.  Derive   these    words : — sheriff,    city,    omnibus,    street,    colony, 
sovereign,   Wales,  bishop,  king,  England. 

11.  What  seem  to  you  the  characteristics  of  a  well -written  piece  of 
composition  ? 

12.  Criticise  the  following  sentences  : — 

(a)  Neither  he  nor  his  brother  were  trained  for  the  ministry. 

(b)  A  convent,  a  lunatic  asylum,  a  husband — either  will  do. 

(c)  He  would  neither  apologise  or  withdraw. 

(d)  Unfortunately,  both  he  and  she  seemed  to  have  lost  their 


(e)  On  attempting   to    extract   the   ball,   the   patient   began 

rapidly  to  sink. 
(/)  Jrle  won't  do  more  than  he  can  help. 

13.  Sketch  clearly  the  plot  or  plots  of  any  of  Shakespeare's  plays. 

Or, 
Give  a  brief  abstract  of  any  one  of  the  Waverley  Novels. 

14.  Quote  any  poem  or  part  of  a  poem  not  less  than  twelve  lines 
in  length,  and  describe  the  metre  in  which  it  is  written. 

15.  What  do  you  know  of  the  life  and  work  of  any  three  of  the 
following  writers  : — Chaucer,  Spenser,  Milton,  Gray,  Wordsworth. 

Give  the  approximate  dates  of  each. 

Or, 
Give  an  account  of  any  one  poet  and  any  one  prose  writer  of  the 
Victorian  era. 


SET  G. 

N.B. — Candidates  must  not  break  up  their  answers  into  scattered 
pieces.  Great  importance  will  be  attached  to  clearness  and  accuracy 
of  expression  and  style. 

I. — Language. 

(Not  more  than  seven  of  these  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted. ) 

1.  Explain  carefully  what  is  meant  by  the  term  "grammar." 
Give  the  chief  divisions  of  "grammar,"  with  definitions  and 
examples. 

2.  Comment  on  the  following  statements  : — 

(a)  "  To  reform  Modern  English  spelling  would  be  to  destroy  the 
life-history  of  many  of  our  words." 

(6)  "  The  spelling  of  Modern  English  is  little  better  than  a  chaos." 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS.  263 

3.  At  what  periods,  and  under  what  conditions,  have  Latin 
words  been  introduced  into  English  directly  or  indirectly?  Give 
examples. 

4.  Derive  and  explain : — Matriculate,  parliament,  isle,  alderman, 
mayor,  cricket ;  and  mention  some  derivatives  from  and  some  cognates 
with  these  words. 

5.  What  is  meant  by  "  relative  pronouns "  ?  Differentiate  the 
uses  of  the  relative  pronouns  in  Modern  English,  giving  instances  of 
each. 

6.  Write  notes  on  the  following  words : — worse,  nearer,  but,  it, 
songstress,  riches,  alms,  ye,  first,   Wednesday. 

7.  Classify  adverbs,  according  to  their  origin  and  formation,  with 
instances. 

8.  How  are  (i)  infinitives,  and  (ii)  participles  distinguished  from 
the  other  parts  of  verbs?  Write  down  and  discuss  six  sentences 
illustrating  various  uses  of  (i)  the  Infinitive  and  (ii)  the  Present 
Participle. 

9.  What  is  meant  by  "  defective  verbs  "  ?  Discuss  the  conjugation 
of  any  three. 

10.  "To  make  a  revolution  every  day  is  the  nature  of  the  sun, 
because  of  that  necessary  course  which  God  hath  ordained  it,  from 
which  it  cannot  swerve  but  by  a  faculty  from  that  voice  which  first 
did  give  it  motion." 

(i)  Analyse  this  sentence  ;  (ii)  underline  the  words  of  Latin  origin. 

II. — Literature  and  Composition. 
(Not  more  than  three  of  these  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

1.  Explain  carefully  what  you  consider  the  chief  differences  between 
Poetry  and  Prose. 

2.  What  is  meant  by  "blank  verse,"  "sonnet,"  "lyric,"  "rhyme," 
"alliteration"?  Write  down  any  ten  lines  of  "blank  verse," 
explaining  the  scansion ;  or  quote  any  sonnet,  explaining  the 
structure,  and  telling  what  you  know  of  its  authorship. 

3.  What  do  you  know  of  any  two  of  the  following  writers  : — 
Chaucer,  Spenser,  Scott,  Lamb,  Tennyson. 

4.  Give  a  brief  account  of  any  two  of  the  following  works : — 
"Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  "  Paradise  Lost,"  "Ivanhoe,"  "Idylls 
of  the  King,"  "Treasure  Island." 

5.  Say  in  what  works  are  to  be  found  the  following  persons,  and 
briefly  describe  their  characters  : — Mr.  Burchell,  Mercutio,  Bailie 
Nicol  Jarvie,  Mr.  Greatheart,  Mr.  Micawber,  Friday. 


SET  H. 

N.B. — Candidates  must  not  brea*  up  their  answers  into  scattered 
pieces.  The  answers  to  Group  I.  must  be  kept  distinct  from  those  to 
Group  II.  Great  importance  will  be  attached  to  clearness  and 
accuracy  of  expression  and  style. 


264  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 

I. — Language. 
(Not  more  than  seven  of  these  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

1.  Give  some  account  of  the  coming  of  the  English  Language  into 
this  country.  In  what  respect  was  it  different  then  from  what  it  is 
now? 

2.  How  has  Latin  come  to  influence  our  vocabulary  so  largely 
Show  that  it  has  influenced  it  indirectly  as  well  as  directly.     Could 
we  have  got  on  without  it  ? 

3.  Mention  other  languages  from  which  we  have  borrowed  words, 
giving  instances,  and  saying  whether  you  think  such  borrowings  were 
necessary.  f 

4.  How  many  sounds  has  the  letter  a  in  English?  Quote  ex- 
amples. Point  out  that  in  some  cases  educated  people  differ  as  to  the 
pronunciation. 

5.  What  are  our  commonest  noun  suffixes,  and  what  force  have 
they  ?     Distinguish  those  of  Teutonic  from  those  of  Romanic  origin. 

6.  What  is  meant  by  the  grammatical  term  "  accidence  "  ?  Explain 
also  the  terms  "case,"  "tense,"  "mood,"  "participle,"  "accent." 

7.  Mention  some  of  the  verbs  that  are  called  "  anomalous,"  and 
show  why  they  are  called  so.  To  which  conjugation  belong  work, 
catch,  hang,  buy.  do,  strew? 

8.  Classify  verbs  according  to  their  syntactical  use  as  distinguished 
from  their  flexional  form.  What  do  you  understand  by  a  verb  "  of 
incomplete  predication  "?  Mention  some  verbs  that  are  used  so,  and 
also  as  "of  complete  predication." 

9.  Write  short  sentences  to  show  the  various  meanings  of  the 
prepositions  with,  to,  by. 

10.  How  would  you  express  the  difference  between  conjunctions 
and  prepositions?  Show  that  some  conjunctions  were  originally 
prepositions  and  that  some  still  are  so. 

II. — Composition  and  Literature. 

{Not  more  than  three  of  these  five  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

11.  Define  the  term  "metaphor."  How  does  a  metaphor  differ 
from  a  "  simile  "  ?     Why  is  it  a  fault  in  style  to  mix  metaphors  ? 

12.  Write  to  A.  Teacher,  Esq.,  a  short  letter  in  the  third  person 
apologising,  on  the  ground  of  ill-health,  for  your  absence  from  lecture, 
hoping  to  be  quite  regular  in  your  attendance  for  the  future,  and 
asking  for  information  as  to  the  work  done  during  your  absence,  and 
the  work  to  be  done  next  time. 

13.  State  briefly  the  theme  and  name  the  author  of  each  of  the 
following  poems: — The  Inchcape  Rock,  Lycidas,  The  Deserted 
Village,  Tithonus,  Herv«^  Riel,  The  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

14.  Who  are  our  chief  living  historians,  and  what  have  they 
written  or  are  they  writing  ?  Give  some  account  of  any  one  work  by 
any  one  of  them. 

15.  Describe  in  ten  octosyllabic  couplets  a  sunrise  or  a  sunset. 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  265 

SET  I. 

N.B. — Candidates  must  not  break  up  their  answers  into  scattered 
pieces.  The  answers  to  Group  L  must  be  kept  distinct  from  those 
to  Group  II.  Great  importance  will  be  attached  to  clearness  and 
accuracy  of  expression  and  style. 

I. — Language. 
(Not  more  than  seven  of  these  ten  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

1.  Define  exactly  the  position  of  English  in  the  Germanic  family 
of  languages. 

2.  State  what  is  meant  by  Grimm's  and  Venter's  Laws.  Give 
examples. 

3.  Explain  and  illustrate  what  is  meant  by  the  terms  analytic  and 
synthetic  as  applied  to  languages. 

4.  What  is  understood  by  phonetic  spelling  ?  Can  modern  English 
spelling  be  considered  phonetic  ? 

5.  Discuss  the  following  forms  : — songstress,  brethren,  alive,  elder, 
Lady-day,  children,  vixen,  inmost,  hearer,  mtthinks. 

6.  Distinguish  between  the  use  of  the  gerund,  the  present  participle, 
and  the  verbal  noun  in  -ing. 

7.  How  does  the  relative  that  differ  in  use  from  who,  which  1 
When  can  the  relative  be  omitted  in  modern  English  ? 

8.  Explain  exactly  the  use  of  the  various  tenses  of  the  active  voice 
in  English  (both  the  simple  tenses  and  those  formed  with  the  auxiliaries 
have  and  be).  Is  it  correct  to  say,  "Spain  has  founded  a  mighty 
colonial  empire  "  ? 

9.  Define  an  adverb,  and  state  how  adverbs  may  be  classed.  Give 
the  rules  regulating  the  position  of  the  adverb. 

10.  Analyse  : — 

11  But  where  the  path  we  walked  began 
To  slant  the  fifth  autumnal  slope, 
As  we  descended  following  Hope, 
There  sat  the  Shadow  feared  of  man." 

II.— Composition  and  Literature. 
(Not  more  than  three  of  these  five  questions  are  to  be  attempted.) 

11.  Define  the  terms  allegory,  antithesis,  epigram,  euphemism, 
caesura,  and  assonance. 

12.  Give  a  very  brief  account  of  the  life  and  works  of  two  of  the 
following  authors  : — Shakespeare,  Dryden,  Pope,  Goldsmith,  Shelley. 

13..  Say  in  what  works  six  of  the  following  persons  aie  to  be  found, 
and  sketch  briefly  their  characters  :— Jacques,  Sir  Anthony  Absolute, 
Mark  Tapley,  Polonius,  Mr.  Greatheart,  Dandie  Dinmont,  Friday, 
Dr.  Primrose. 

14.  Give  some  account  of  any  single  poem  by  Wordsworth,  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  or  Tennyson. 

15.  Write  a  short  description  of  any  place  or  building  of  historical 
interest  with  which  you  are  familiar. 


266  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

TEACHERS'  CERTIFICATE  EXAMINATION.— FIRST 
YEAR  PAPERS  (Men  and  Women). 

SET  A. 

{Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Answer  Question  1,  and  Jive  others,  of  which  two  at  least  must  be  from  those  on 
Milton's  "Tractate." 

If  more  than  six  questions  are  attempted,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  the 
paper  will  be  revised. 

English  Language  and  Literature. 

1.  Analyse  the  following  passage,  and  parse  the  words  italicised: — 
"  Thus,  Mr.  Hartlib,  you  have  a  general  view  in  writing,  as  your 

desire  was,  of  that  which  at  several  times  I  had  discourst  with  you 
concerning  the  best  and  noblest  way  of  education  j  not  beginning  as 
some  have  done  from  the  cradle,  which  yet  might  be  worth  many 
considerations,  if  brevity  had  not  been  my  scope,  many  other  circum- 
stances also  I  could  have  mention'd,  but  this  to  such  as  have  the 
worth  in  them  to  make  trial,  for  light  and  direction  may  be  enough." 

2.  Write  a  short  analysis  of  one  of  Gray's  Odes,  showing  the 
sequence  and  appropriateness  of  the  thoughts  expressed. 

3.  Write,  in  plain  prose,  the  meaning  of  one  of  the  following 
extracts,  adding  a  brief  explanation  of  the  allusions  : — 

(a)       "  Girt  with  many  a  baron  bold 

Sublime  their  starry  fronts  they  rear ; 

And  gorgeous  dames,  and  statesmen  old 
In  bearded  majesty,  appear. 
In  the  midst  a  form  divine  ! 
Her  eye  proclaims  her  of  the  Briton  Line : 
Her  lion-port,  her  awe-commanding  face 
Attemper'd  sweet  to  virgin-grace." 

(6)       "Nor  second  He,  that  rode  sublime 
Upon  the  seraph-wings  of  Ecstasy 
The  secrets  of  the  Abyss  to  spy  : 

He  pass'd  the  flaming  bounds  of  Space  and  Time : 
The  living  Throne,  the  sapphire-blaze 
Where  angels  tremble  while  they  gaze, 
He  saw  ;  but  blasted  with  excess  of  light, 
Closed  his  eyes  in  endless  night." 

4.  What  is  the  meaning  of  "Ode,"  "Pindaric  Ode,"  and  "Elegy"? 
Show  that  these  names  are  properly  given  to  such  of  Gray's  poems 
as  are  so  called.  Mention,  if  you  can,  examples  of  each  kind  from 
other  poets. 

5.  State  why,  in  your  opinion,  Gray's  ' '  Elegy  written  in  a 
Country  Churchyard "  should  (or  should  not)  be  considered  one  of 
the  masterpieces  of  English  lyrical  poetry. 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  267 

8.  Explain  the  allusions  in  the  following  passages : — 

(a)  "Their  scaly  armour's  Tyrian  hue." 

(b)  "Till  the  sad  Nine  in  Greece's  evil  hour 

Left  their  Parnassus  for  the  Latian  plains. n 

(c)  "  No  dolphin  came,  no  Nereid  stirred." 

(d)  "  And  spare  the  meek  usurper's  holy  head." 

(e)  "The  Attic  warbler  pours  her  throat." 

7.  Explain  the  epithets  in  the  following  passages  quoted  from 
the  "Elegy"  and  discuss  their  suitability  : — 

Now  fades  the  glimmering  landscape  from  the  sight. 

And  drowsy  tinklings  lull  the  distant  folds. 

The  inevitable  hour. 

Where  through  the  long-drawn  aisle  and  fretted  vault. 

This  pleasing  anxious  being. 

The  pangs  of  conscious  truth. 

The  genial  current  of  the  soul. 

8.  What,  in  Milton's  view,  is  the  "end  of  learning"?  Compare 
with  views  advanced  by  other  writers  on  Education. 

9.  By  what  means  did  Milton  propose  to  avoid  the  reproach  of 
"learning  mere  words,"  and  to  secure  the  "universal  insight  into 
things"? 

10.  What  suggestions  for  the  conduct  of  elementary  schools  can 
be  drawn  from  Milton's  "Tractate,"  and  what  actual  practices  are 
supported  by  Milton's  authority? 

1 1.  Explain  the  following  :— 

(a)  Many  modern  Janua's  and  Didactics. 

(b)  That  aot  of  reason  which  in  Ethicks  is  called  Proairesis. 

(c)  The  Institution  of  Physick. 

(d)  All  our  time  from  Lilly  to  the  commencing,  as  they  term 

it,  Master  of  Art. 

(e)  Their  Academics  and  Lycaeum. 

(/)  Their  empty  and  unrecrutible  colonels. 
(g)  Pure  trifling  at  Grammar  and  Sophistry. 


Composition  Subjects. 

(One  hour  allowed.) 

Write    in   plain   prose   a   short   essay   on   one   of    the   following 
subjects : — 

(a)  "  Knowledge  is  proud  that  he  has  learn'd  so  much  ; 

Wisdom  is  humble  that  he  knows  no  more." — Cowper. 

(b)  "Honest  labour  bears  a  lovely  face." — Dekker. 

(c)  The  pleasures  of  botanising. 


268  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 

SET  B. 

(Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Answer  Question  1,  and  five  others,  of  which  two  must  be  from  the  remaining 
questions  in  Section  I.  and  three  from  Section  II. 

Full  marks  are  higher  for  Question  1  than  for  any  other. 

If  more  than  six  questions  are  attempted,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  the 
paper  will  be  revised. 

Section  I. 

1.  Analyse  the  following  passage,  and  parse  the  words  italicised: — 
"  The  ideas  of  goblins  and  sprites  have  really  no  more  to  do  with 

darkness  than  light ;  yet  let  but  a  foolish  maid  inculcate  these  often 
on  the  mind  of  a  child,  and  raise  them  there  together,  possibly  he 
shall  never  be  able  to  separate  them  again  so  long  as  he  lives  ;  but 
darkness  shall  ever  afterwards  bring  with  it  those  frightful  ideas, 
and  they  shall  be  so  joined  that  he  can  no  more  bear  the  one  than 
the  other." 

2.  Illustrate  the  various  uses  of  the  infinitive  form  of  the  verb 
in  English. 

3.  Discuss  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  a  tabular  form 
for  analysis  of  sentences. 

4.  Note  some  changes  in  idiom  and  the  meaning  of  words  used 
which  have  occurred  since  the  Authorised  Version  of  the  Bible  was 
issued. 

5.  What  has  been  the  influence  of  false  analogy  in  the  formation 
of  words  ?     Illustrate  from  the  history  of  the  English  language. 

6.  Give  examples  of  "doublets"  in  English,  i.e.  words  which 
may  be  traced  to  the  same  original  but  have  now  different  forms. 
Explain  how  they  came  into  existence. 


Section  II  (The  Spectator  and  Tennyson.) 

7.  Write  brief  explanatory  notes  on  the  following: — 

(a)  "  Orestes,  in  his  madness,  looked  as  if  he  saw  something." 

(b)  "The  good  knight  told  me  my  good  friend,  his  chaplain, 

was  very  well  .  .  .  and  that  the  Sunday  before  he  had 
made  a  most  incomparable  sermon  out  of  Dr.  Barrow." 

(c)  "He  looked  upon  Prince  Eugenio  (for  so  the  knight  always 

called  him)  to  be  a  greater  man  than  Scanderbeg." 

{d)  "  I  could  wish  our  Royal  Society  would  compile  a  body  of 
natural  history,  the  best  that  could  be  gathered  together 
from  books  and  observations. M 

(e)  "I  must  not  omit  that  Sir  Roger  is  a  justice  of  the  quorum ; 
that  he  fills  the  chair  at  a  quarter  session  with  great 
abilities." 

8.  Sketch  the  characters  of  Will  Wimble  and  the  chaplain  ;   or, 
write  a  short  summary  of  the  "  Scene  in  a  Stage  Coach." 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS  268(a) 

9.  "  Addison  shows  in  Sir  Roger  the  solid  and  peculiar  English 
character.  ...  A  hundred  traits  depict  the  times."  Expand  and 
illustrate  this  criticism. 

10.  Illustrate,  from  the  "Selections,"  Tennyson's  precise  observa- 
tion of  nature. 

11.  Write  notes  upon  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  "  Heaven  heads  the  count  of  crimes 

With  that  wild  oath." 

(b)  "Or  mythic  Uther's  deeply- wounded  son." 

(c)  "The  shrilly  whinnyings  of  the  team  of  Hell." 

(d)  "  Again  their  ravening  eagle  rose 
In  anger,  wheeled  on  Europe-shadowing  wings, 
And  barking  for  the  thrones  of  kings." 

(e)  "  Like  Herod,  when  the  shout  was  in  his  ears, 

Struck  thro'  with  pangs  of  Hell." 

(/)  "The  Abominable,  that  uninvited  came 
Into  the  fair  Peleian  banquet-hall, 

And  cast  the  golden  fruit  upon  the  board." 

12.  How  far  were  Tennyson's  religious  ideas  characteristic  of  his 
age  and  country  ? 

SET  C. 

(Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Answer  Question  1  and  five  others,  of  which  two  must  be  taken  from  the  remaining 
questions  in  Section  I.  and  three  from  Section  II.  Full  marks  are  higher  for 
Question  1  than  for  any  other.  If  more  than  six  questions  are  attempted,  only  the 
tix  answers  coming  first  on  your  paper  will  be  revised. 

Section  I. 

1.  Analyse  the  following  passage,  and  parse  the  words  in  italics  : — 
"  He  was  proud,   when   I   praised ;    he  was  submissive,  when  I 

reproved  him;  but  he  did  never  love  me,  and  what  he  now  mistakes 
for  justice  and  kindness  for  me,  is  but  the  pleasant  sensation  which 
all  persons  feel  at  revisiting  the  scenes  of  their  boyish  hopes  and 
fears  ;  and  the  seeing  on  equal  terms  the  man  they  were  accustomed  to 
look  up  to  with  reverence." 

2.  During  what  periods  were  French  words  introduced  into  our 
language?  Give  examples  of  the  words  introduced  at  the  different 
periods. 

3.  Write  a  short  summary  of  Grimm's  Law. 

4.  Give  instances  of  words  of  Keltic  and  Scandinavian  origin  which 
are  still  in  use. 

5.  Illustrate  the  imperfections  of  the  English  alphabet. 

Sbction  II. 

6.  What  conclusions  about  his  political  views  would  you  draw  from 
Wordsworth's  poems  ? 


268(b)  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

7.  Account   for   and   illustrate   the   simplicity   of  Wordsworth's 
delineation  of  Nature  ;  or 

Describe  with  illustrations  from  his  poems,  Wordsworth's  views 
of  the  relation  between  man  and  nature. 

8.  Give  examples  of  the  humour  and  pathos  of  the  "Essays  of 
Elia." 

9.  State  and  discuss  Lamb's  views  on  "Modern  Gallantry." 

10.  Compare  Lamb's  "New  Schoolmaster"  with  the  teacher  of 
to-day. 

11.  Annotate  these  passages  : — 

(a)  "  Great  is  thy  name  in  the  rubric,  thou  venerable  Archflamen 
of  Hymen." 

(6)  "Lear,  thrown   from   his   palace,    must   divest   him   of   his 
garments,  till  he  answer  '  mere  nature.'  " 

(c)  "  His  Minerva  is  born  in  panoply." 

(d)  "  The  Carthusian  is  bound  to  his  brethren  by  this  agreeing 

spirit  of  incommunicativeness." 

(e)  "Thou  liest  in  Abraham's  bosom  all  the  year." 

(/)  "Upon  the  side 

Of  Hellespont  (such  faith  was  entertained) 

A  knot  of  spiry  trees  for  ages  grew 

From  out  the  tomb  of  him  for  whom  she  died." 

(g)  "  What  Horace  gloried  to  behold, 

What  Maro  loved,  shall  we  unfold  ? 
Can  naughty  Time  be  just  ?  " 

(h)  "They  dreamt  of  a  perishable  home 
Who  thus  could  build." 


SET  D. 

(Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Answer  Question  1,  and  two  other  questions  in  Section  I.,  and  two  questions 
from  each  of  the  other  Sections. 

Section  I. — English  Language. 

1.   Analyse  one  of  the  following  passages,  and  parse  the  words  ic 
italics  in  it : — 

(a)  "  I  do  not,  brother, 

Infer  as  if  I  thought  my  sister's  state 
Secure  without  all  doubt  or  controversy  ; 
Yet,  where  an  equal  poise  of  hope  and  fear 
Does  arbitrate  the  event,  my  nature  is 
That  I  incline  to  hope  rather  than  fear 
And  gladly  banish  squint  suspicion." 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  268(c) 

(6)  "  We  had  not  gone  far,  when  Sir  Roger,  popping  out  his  head, 
called  the  coachman  down  from  the  box,  and  upon  his 
presenting  himself  at  the  window  asked  him  if  he  smoked ; 
as  I  was  considering  what  this  would  end  in,  he  bid  him 
stop  by  the  way  at  any  good  tobacconist's,  and  take  in  a 
roll  of  their  best  Virginia." 

2.  Write  brief  notes,  giving  illustrations,  on  the  different  uses  of 
the  words  both,  only,  like,  what. 

3.  How  are  degrees  of  comparison  formed  ?  Give  six  instances  of 
irregular  comparison  and  account  for  the  so-called  irregularities. 

4.  To  what  group  of  languages  does  English  belong,  and  to  what 
other  language  is  it  most  nearly  related  ? 

5.  During  what  periods  and  by  what  influences  were  Latin  words 
introduced  into  English  ?     Give  examples. 

Section  II. — Comus  and  Lycidas. 

6.  What  were  the  two  objects  with  which  Lycidas  was  written! 
What  reference  to  current  events  does  the  poem  contain?  Why 
does  Milton  speak  of  himself  in  it  as  a  shepherd  ? 

7.  What  was  the  occasion  of  the  writing  of  Comus?  Describe  the 
last  scene. 

8.  State  what  you  consider  the  chief  characteristics  of  Milton's 
style,  comparing  it  with  that  of  any  other  English  poet  with  whom  you 
are  familiar.  What  is  the  metre  chiefly  used  in  these  two  poems  ? 
Illustrate  your  answer  from  the  lines  in  the  next  question. 

9.  Comment  shortly  on  the  following  passages, : — 

(a)  "  Sisters  of  the  sacred  well 

That  from  beneath  the  seat  of  Jove  doth  spring." 

(b)  "  For  neither  were  ye  playing  on  the  steep 

Where  your  old  bards,  the  famous  Druids,  lie, 
Nor  on  the  shaggy  top  of  Mona  high." 

(c)  "  Yet  some  there  be  that  by  due  steps  aspire 

To  lay  their  just  hands  on  the  golden  key 
That  opes  the  palace  of  eternity. " 

(d)  "  The  grey  hooded  even, 
Like  a  sad  votarist  in  palmer's  weed, 

Rose  from  the  hindmost  wheels  of  Phoebus'  wain." 

Section  III. — Selections  from  Addison. 

10.  When,  and  for  how  long,  did  the  Spectator  appear  ?  To  what 
other  periodicals  did  Addison  contribute,  and  who  was  his  chief 
associate  ? 

11.  Describe  either : — 

(a)  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  ;  or 

(b)  Will  Wimble  ;  or 

(c)  Tom  Folio. 


268(d)  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

12.  When  we  cease  to  study  Addison  as  a  statesman  or  a  critic, 
as  a  theologian  or  a  moralist,  what  of  him  remains  ? 

13.  Give  a  short  analysis  of  the  essay  entitled  "The  Vision  of 
Public  Credit."  Explain  the  political  or  other  references  in  the  two 
"  Dances  of  Apparitions." 


SET  E. 

{Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Answer  Question  1,  and  two  other  questions  from  Section  I.,  and  two  questions  from 
each  of  the  other  Sections. 

If  more  than  seven  questions  as  prescribed  are  attempted,  only  the  prescribed 
number  of  answers  in  each  Section  coming  first  on  your  paper  will  be  revised. 

Section  I.— English  Language. 

1.  Analyse  the  words  in  brackets  and  parse  the  words  in  italics  in 
one  of  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  ("  On  superior  powers 

Were  we  to  press,  inferior  might  on  ours ; 

Or  in  the  full  creation  leave  a  void 

Where,  one  step  broken,  the  great  scale's  destroyed.) 

From  nature's  chain  whatever  link  you  strike, 

Tenth,  o»  ten  thousandth,  breaks  the  chain  alike." 

(o)  {**  Many  politicians  of  our  own  time  are  in  the  habit  of 
laying  it  down  as  a  self-evident  proposition,  that  no 
people  ought  to  be  free  till  they  are  fit  to  use  their  free- 
dom.) The  maxim  is  worthy  of  the  fool  in  the  old  story, 
who  resolved  not  to  go  into  the  water  till  he  had  learnt 
to  swim." 

2.  As  what  parts  of  speech  can  these  words  be  used  :^but,  only, 
what  ?     Give  examples. 

3.  Account  for  the  following  double  forms  : — regal,  royal ;  garner, 
granary  ;  fidelity,  fealty  ;  pursue,  persecute  ;  benediction,  benison. 

4.***  The  troops  were  far  from  exhausted. " 

"  The  troops  were  far  from  being  exhausted." 

What  is  the  precise  meaning  of  the  above  statements?  Parse  the 
words  in  italics  in  each  case. 

5.  How  far  is  it  true  to  say  that  English  is  not  an  inflected 
language  ?  What  traces  are  there  of  its  having  formerly  been  more 
inflected  ? 

Section  II. — Pope,  Essay  on  Man,  1  and  2. 

1.  Thoroughly  explain,  with  reference  to  the  context  in  which  they 
occur,  the  following  passages  : — 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  268(e) 

(a)  "  Reason  the  bias  turns  to  good  from  ill, 

And  Nero  reigns  a  Titus,  if  he  will. " 

(b)  "  Say  what  the  use,  were  finer  optics  given, 

To  inspect  a  mite,  not  comprehend  the  heaven  ? 
Or  touch,  if  tremblingly  alive  all  o'er, 
To  smart  and  agonise  at  every  pore?" 

(c)  "  With  too  much  knowledge  for  the  sceptic  side, 

With  too  much  weakness  for  the  Stoic's  pride." 

(d)  "  If  plagues  or  earthquakes  break  not  heaven's  design, 

Why  then  a  Borgia  or  a  Catiline  ?  " 

2.  Give,  in  plain  prose,  the  meaning  of  the  following  passage  : — 

"  Lo,  the  poor  Indian  !  whose  untutor'd  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds,  or  hears  him  in  the  wind ; 
His  soul  proud  science  never  taught  to  stray 
Far  as  the  solar  walk,  or  milky  way  ; 
Yet  simple  nature  to  his  hope  has  given, 
Behind  the  cloud-topt  hill,  an  humbler  heav'n  ; 
Some  safer  world  in  depth  of  woods  embrac'd, 
Some  happier  island  in  the  wat'ry  waste, 
Where  slaves  once  more  their  native  land  behold, 
No  fiends  torment,  no  Christians  thirst  for  gold. 
To  be,  conteuts  his  natural  desire, 
He  asks  no  angel's  wing,  no  seraph's  fire ; 
But  thinks,  admitted  to  that  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company." 

3.  Enunciate  briefly  the  main  thesis  of  the  Essay  on  Man.     From 
whom  did  Pope  derive  his  philosophy  ? 

4.  What,    according   to   Pope,   are    the   two   great   principles   in 
human  nature  ?     Which  is  the  stronger,  and  why  ? 


Section  III. — Macaulay's  Essay  on  Milton,  and  Johnson's 
Life  of  Milton. 

1.  Give  the  chief  points  of  Macaulay's  comparison  of  Milton  and 
Dante. 

2.  Give  the  substance  of  Johnson's  criticism  on  Lyculas.  How 
far  do  you  think  it  just? 

3.  "  We  .think  that  as  civilisation  advances,  poetry  almost  neces- 
sarily declines. n  How  does  Macaulay  argue  in  favour  of  this  proposi- 
tion ?  Why  do  you  think  Milton  himself  said  "he  had  been  born 
an  age  too  late  "  ? 

4.  Point  out  how  Johnson's  political  and  religious  opinions  in- 
fluenced his  estimate  of  Milton. 


268(f)  EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS. 

TEACHEES'  CERTIFICATE  EXAMINATION— SECOND 
YEAR  PAPERS  (Men  and  Women). 

SET  A. 

{Three  hours  allowed  for  this  Paper.) 

Candidates  must  not  answer  more  than  six  questions. 

If  more  than  the  prescribed  number  of  questions  are  attempted,  only  that  number 
of  answers  coming  first  on  the  paper  will  be  revised. 

English  Language  and  Literature. 

1.  Analyse   the  following  lines,  and  parse  fully  the  words  itali- 
cised : — 

u  Aumerle,  thou  weep'st,  my  tender-hearted  cousin  ! 
We  '11  make  foul  weather  with  despised  tears  ; 
Our  sighs  and  they  shall  lodge  the  summer  corn, 
And  make  a  dearth  in  this  revolting  land. 
Or  shall  we  play  the  wantons  with  our  woes, 
And  make  some  pretty  match  with  shedding  tears  ? 
As  thus,  to  drop  them  still  upon  one  place, 
Till  they  have  fretted  us  a  pair  of  graves 
"Within  the  earth  ;  and,  therein  laid — There  lies 
Two  kinsmen  digged  their  graves  with  weeping  eyes  !  " 

2.  Illustrate  from  the  play  of  Richard  II.  tbe  manner  in  which 
Shakespeare  treated  his  authorities  in  composing  his  dramas. 

3.  Comment  upon  the  language  of  the  following  lines  : — 
(a)  "Grace  me  no  grace,  nor  uncle  me  no  uncle." 

(&)  "  Tell  me  ...  if  he  appeal  the  Duke  on  ancient  malice." 

(c)  "  Such  neighbour  nearness  to  our  sacred  blood 
Should  nothing  privilege  him,  nor  partialise 
The  unstooping  firmness  of  my  upright  soul." 

(d)   "I  did  confess  it,  and  exactly  begg'd 

Your  grace's  pardon,  and  I  hope  I  had  it." 

(e)  "  Norfolk,  throw  down,  we  bid  ;  there  is  no  boot." 

(/)  "  We  cannot  atone  you." 

(g)  "  Reproach  and  dissolution  hangeth  over  him." 

(h)  M  And  yet  my  letters-patents  gave  me  leave." 

4.  Explain  : — 

(a)  "  If  you  do  wrongfully  seize  Hereford's  rights, 
Call  in  the  letters-patents  that  he  hath 
By  his  attorneys-general  to  sue 
His  livery,  and  deny  bis  offer'd  homage, 
You  pluck  a  thousand  dangers  on  your  head.  " 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS.  268(g) 

(6)  "  Whilst  you  have  fed  upon  my  signories, 

Dispark'd  my  parka  and  felled  my  forest-woods, 
From  my  own  windows  torn  my  household  coat, 
Razed  out  my  impress,  leaving  me  no  sign, 
Save  men's  opinions  and  my  living  blood, 
To  show  the  v  orld  I  am  a  gentleman." 

(c)  "  0  good  !  convey  ?  conveyers  are  you  all, 

That  rise  thus  nimbly  by  a  true  king's  falL" 

(d)  u  Our  scene  is  altered  from  a  serious  thing, 

And  now  changed  to  '  The  Beggar  and  the  King.' " 

(e)  "These  signs  forerun  the  death  or  fall  of  kings." 
(/)   "  The  caterpillars  of  the  commonwealth." 

5.  Analyse  the  character  of  Bolingbroke,  or  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
as  depicted  by  Shakespeare. 

6.  Discuss  Shakespeare's  use  of  the  supernatural  in  The  Tempest 
and  Macbeth. 

7.  Trace  in  outline  the  development  of  Macbeth's  character,  or 
discuss  the  date  of  the  composition  of  The  Tempest. 

8.  Write  in  plain  prose  the  meaning  of  one  of  the  following  extracts 
from  Gray,  adding  a  brief  explanation  of  the  allusions  : — 

(a)  "Girt  with  many  a  baron  bold 

Sublime  their  starry  fronts  they  rear  ; 

And  gorgeous  dames,  and  statesmen  old 
In  bearded  majesty,  appear. 
In  the  midst  a  form  divine ! 
Her  eye  proclaims  her  of  the  Briton  line  : 
Her  lion-port,  her  awe-commanding  face 
Attemper'd  sweet  to  virgin-grace." 

(6)  "  Now  second  He,  that  rode  sublime 

Upon  the  seraph- wings  of  Ecstasy 
The  secrets  of  the  Abyss  to  spy : 

He  pass'd  the  naming  bounds  of  Space  and  Time  : 
The  living  Throne,  the  sapphire  blaze 
Where  angels  tremble  while  they  gaze, 
He  saw  ;  but  blasted  with  excess  of  light, 
Closed  his  eyes  in  endless  night." 

9.  A  critic  of  some  renown  says  of  Gray  and  the  poets  of  his  time  : 
11  They  were  nearly  all  .  .  .  lovers  of  abstraction  and  allegory,  who, 
to  attain  greatness,  willingly  mounted  on  stilts."  How  far,  in  your 
opinion,  is  this  criticism  true  of  Gray  ? 

10.  Explain  the  allusions  in  the  following  passages.  Say  whether 
in  your  opinion  Gray  has  passed  the  limits  within  which  allusion  is 
legitimately  confined : — 

(a)   "Their  scaly  armour's  Tyrian  hue." 
(6)  "  Till  the  sad  Nine  in  Greece's  evil  hour 

Left  their  Parnassus  for  the  Latian  plains." 

(c)  "  No  dolphin  came,  no  Nereid  stirred." 

(d)  "  And  spare  the  meek  usurper's  holy  head." 

(e)  '*  The  Attic  warbler  pours  her  throat." 


268(h)  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 


Composition  Subjects. 

(One  hour  allowed.) 

Write  in  plain  prose  a  short  essay  on  one  of  the  following 
subjects  : — : 

(a)  "  What  should  they  know  of  England  who  only  England 
know  ?  " — Kipling. 

(b)  The  spread  of  the  English  language. 

(c)  "  Take  a  straw  and  throw  it  up  into  the  air ;  you  may  see  by 
that  which  way  the  wind  is." — Selden. 

SET  B. 

(Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Candidates  must  not  answer  more  than  six  questions,  which  must  include 
Questions  1,  6,  and  at  least  one  question  from  the  last  four. 

If  more  than  the  prescribed  number  of  questions  are  attempted,  only  that  number 
of  answers  coming  first  on  your  paper  will  be  revised. 

1.  Analyse  the  following  passage,  and  parse  the  words  in  italics  : — 

"  Macd.  What 's  the  disease  he  means  ? 
Male.  'Tis  called  the  evil : 

A  most  miraculous  work  in  this  good  king  ; 
Which  often,  since  my  here-remain  in  England, 
I  have  seen  him  do.     How  he  solicits  Heaven, 
Himself  best  knows  :  but  strangely-visited  people, 
All  swoln  and  ulcerous,  pitiful  to  the  eye, 
The  mere  despair  of  surgery,  he  cures, 
Hanging  a  golden  stamp  about  their  necks, 
Put  on  with  holy  prayers  :  and  'tis  spoken, 
To  the  succeeding  royalty  he  leaves 
The  healing  benediction." 

2.  What  reasons  are  there  for  the  theory  that  the  play  of  Macbeth, 
as  we  have  it,  is  not  all  of  Shakespeare's  composition  ? 

3.  Analyse  the  character  of  Lady  Macbeth,  and  bring  out  the  con- 
trast between  it  and  the  character  of  her  husband. 

4.  Explain  the  following  three  passages  in  the  light  of  the  different 
theories  concerning  the  nature  of  the  witches  in  Macbeth : — 

(a)  "First  Witch.      Where  hast  thou  been,  sister ? 
Second  Witch.    Killing  swine." 

(6)  "  All  hail,  Macbeth  !  that  shalt  be  king  hereafter." 

(c)  "  Hecate.    0,  well  done  !  I  commend  your  pains ; 
And  every  one  shall  share  i'  the  gains." 

5.  Give  the  full  meaning  of  three  of  the  following  passages,  bring- 
ing out  the  force  of  the  metaphor.  Say  also  by  whom  and  when  the 
words  were  uttered  : — 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  268(i) 

(o)  "Two  truths  are  told, 

As  happy  prologues  to  the  swelling  act 
Of  the  imperial  theme." 

(b)  "If  it  were  done  when  'tis  done,  then  'twere  well 

It  were  done  quickly  ;  if  the  assassination 
Could  trammel  up  the  consequence,  and  catch, 
With  his  surcease,  success." 

(c)  "  From  this  instant 
There  's  nothing  serious  in  mortality  : 

All  is  but  toys  :  renown  and  grace  is  dead ; 
The  wine  of  life  is  drawn,  and  the  mere  lees 
Is  left  this  vault  to  brag  of." 

(d)  "Then  comes  my  fit  again;  I  had  else  been  perfect, 

Whole  as  the  marble,  founded  as  the  rock, 

As  broad  and  general  as  the  casing  air ; 

But  now  I  am  cabin'd,  cribb'd,  confined,  bound  in 

To  saucy  doubts  and  fears." 

6.  Set  out  briefly  the  various  threads  in  the  plot  of  the  Merchant 
of  Venice,  and  show  how  they  are  connected. 

7.  What  is  a  simile  ?  Give  examples  of  similes  from  "  The  Coming 
of  Arthur"  and  "The  Passing  of  Arthur,"  and  carefully  analyse  one 
of  them,  criticising  its  appropriateness. 

8.  Explain  the  allusions  in  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  "  The  sunset  bound  of  Lyonnesse — 

A  land  of  old  upheaven  from  the  abyss 
By  fire,  to  sink  into  the  abyss  again." 

(&)  "  King  Arthur's  sword,  Excalibur, 

Wrought  by  the  lonely  maiden  of  the  lake. 
Nine  years  she  wrought  it,  sitting  in  the  deep 
Upon  the  hidden  bases  of  the  hills." 

(c)  "  The  island-valley  of  Avilion." 

(d)  "  Whereat  the  two, 
For  each  had  warded  either  in  the  fight, 
Sware  on  the  field  of  death  a  deathless  love." 

(«)    "  The  swallow  and  the  swift  are  near  akin, 
But  thou  art  closer  to  this  noble  prince, 
Being  his  own  dear  sister." 

(/)  "  And  there  I  saw  Mage  Merlin,  whose  vast  wit 
And  hundred  winters  are  but  as  the  hands 
Of  loyal  vassals  toiling  for  their  liege. " 

(g)  "  He  laugh'd  as  is  his  wont,  and  answer'd  me 
In  riddling  triplets  of  old  time,  and  said." 

(h)  "  There  at  the  banquet  those  great  lords  from  Rome, 
The  slowly-fading  mistress  of  the  world, 
Strode  in,  and  claim'd  their  tribute  as  of  yore." 


268(j)  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

9.  "'0  King  !'  she  cried,  '  and  I  will  tell  thee  true : 

He  found  me  first,  when  jret  a  little  maid : 

Beaten  I  had  been  for  a  little  fault 

Whereof  I  was  not  guilty  ;  and  out  I  ran 

And  flung  myself  down  on  a  bank  of  heath, 

And  hated  this  fair  world  and  all  therein, 

And  wept,  and  wish'd  that  I  were  dead  ;  and  he — 

I  know  not  whether  of  himself  he  came, 

Or  brought  by  Merlin,  who,  they  say,  can  walk 

Unseen  at  pleasure —  he  was  at  my  side, 

And  spake  sweet  words,  and  comforted  my  heart, 

And  dried  my  tears,  being  a  child  with  me. 

And  many  a  time  he  came,  and  evermore 

As  I  grew  greater,  grew  with  me  ;  and  sad 

At  times  he  seem'd,  and  sad  with  him  was  I. '  " 

Explain  by  reference  to  these  lines  the  metre  of  Tennyson's  epic 
poems.  Comment  on  any  variety  of  rhythm  which  is  introduced; 
compare  with  the  blank  verse  of  Macbeth. 

10.  How  far  is  "sense  at  war  with  soul"  the  subject  of  the  two 
poems  of  Tennyson  you  have  studied  ? 


SET  C. 

(Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Candidates  must  not  answer  more  than  six  questions,  which  must  include  two 
questions  from  each  Section.  If  more  than  the  prescribed  number  of  questions 
are  attempted,  only  that  number  of  answers  coming  first  on  your  paper  will  be 
revised. 

Section  I. — Hamlet. 

1.  Show  the  relation  between  the  various  clauses  in  the  following 
passage,  and  parse  the  italicised  words : — 

"  Costly  thy  habit  as  thy  purse  can  buy, 
But  not  cxpress'd  in  fancy  ;  rich,  not  gaudy  ; 
For  tho  apparel  oft  proclaims  the  man, 
And  they  in  France  of  the  best  rank  and  station 
Are  most  Select  and  generous,  chief  in  that. 
Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be ; 
For  loan  oft  loses  both  itself  and  friend, 
And  borrowing  dulls  the  edge  of  husbandry. 
This  above  all :  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

2.  Discuss  the  question  of  Hamlet's  sanity. 

3.  Sketch  the  character  of  Polonius. 

4.  Write  full  notes  upon  two  of  the  following  extracts  : — 

(a)  "  Her  obsequies  have  been  as  far  enlarged 

As  we  have  warranty ;  her  death  was  doubtful ; 


EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS.  268(k) 

And,  but  that  great  command  o'ersways  the  order, 
She  should  in  ground  unsanetified  have  lodged 
Till  the  last  trumpet ;  for  charitable  prayers, 
Shards,  flints  and  pebbles  should  be  thrown  on  her  * 
Yet  here  she  is  allowed  her  virgin  crants, 
Her  maiden  strewments  and  the  bringing  home 
Of  bell  and  burial." 

(b)  "  That  monster,  custom,  who  all  sense  doth  eat, 

Of  habits  devil,  is  angel  yet  in  this, 

That  to  the  use  of  actions  fair  and  good 

He  likewise  gives  a  frock  or  livery, 

That  aptly  is  put  on. 

For  use  almost  can  change  the  stamp  of  nature, 

And  either  master  the  devil  or  throw  him  out 

With  wondrous  potency." 

(c)  "  In  the  corrupted  currents  of  this  world 

Offence's  gilded  hand  may  shove  by  justice, 
And  oft  'tis  seen  the  wicked  prize  itself 
Buys  out  the  law  :  but  'tis  not  so  above  ; 
There  is  no  shuffling,  there  the  action  lies 
In  his  true  nature  ;  and  we  ourselves  compell'd, 
Even  to  the  teeth  and  forehead  of  our  faults, 
To  give  in  evidence." 

Section  II. — Arnold's    Wordsworth. 

5.  In  what  poetical  qualities  was  Wordsworth  specially  eminent? 
Illustrate  your  answer  by  quotation. 

6.  What  ideas  does  Wordsworth  express  regarding  (a)  childhood, 
(b)  freedom,  (c)  duty,  and  (d)  religion? 

7.  Explain  the  allusions  in  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  "  To  the  wide  church  door, 

Charged  with  these  offerings  which  thy  fathers  bore 

For  decoration  in  the  Papal  time, 

The  innocent  procession  softly  moves : — 

The  spirit  of  Laud  is  pleased  in  heaven's  pure  clime, 

And  Hooker's  voice  the  spectacle  approves." 

(6)  "  Left  single,  in  bold  parley,  ye,  of  yore, 

Did  from  the  Norman  win  a  gallant  wreath  ; 
Confirmed  the  charters  that  were  yours  before  ; — 
No  parleying  now." 

(c)  M  Thou  knowest,  the  Delphic  oracle  foretold 

That  the  first  Greek  who  touched  the  Trojan  strand 
Should  die. " 

(d)  "  Such  was  blind 
Maeonides  of  ample  mind  ; 

Such  Milton,  to  the  fountain  head 
Of  glory,  by  Urania  led  !  " 


268(1)  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

(e)  "Toussaint,  the  most  unhappy  man  of  men  !" 

(/)  "  Be  true 

Ye  winds  of  ocean,  and  the  midland  sea, 
Wafting  your  charge  to  soft  Parthenope." 

Section  III. — Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 

8.  Account  for  the  title,  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 

9.  The  fairy  mythology  of  Shakespeare  has  been  described  as  an 
attempt  to  blend  "  the  Elves  of  the  village  with  the  Fays  of 
romance."     Comment  on  this  statement. 

10.  Give  the  cast  of  "  The  most  lamentable  comedy  of  Pyramus  and 
Thisbe."     How  were  the  difficulties  of  scenery  overcome  ? 

SET  D. 

( Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Candidates  must  not  answer  more  than  six  questions,  which  must  include  one  from 
each  Section. 

If  more  than  six  questions  are  attempted,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on  your 
paper  will  be  revised. 

Section  I. — King  Lear. 

1.  (a)  Divide  the  following  passages  into  clauses,  and  show  their 
relationship  to  each  other. 

(b)  Give  a  detailed  analysis  of  "Those  happy  smilets — diamondp 
dropped. " 

(c)  Parse  the  words  in  italics. 

"  Patience  and  sorrow  strove 
Who  should  express  her  goodliest.     You  have  seen 
Sunshine  and  rain  at  once  :  her  smiles  and  tears 
Were  like  a  better  way.     Those  happy  smilets 
That  played  on  her  ripe  lip,  seemed  not  to  know 
What  quests  were  in  her  eyes  ;  which  parted  them 
As  pearls  from  diamonds  dropped.     In  brief 
Sorrow  would  be  a  rarity  most  beloved 
If  all  could  so  become  it." 

2.  Trace  the  development  of  Lear's  madness,  showing  what  stages 
in  it  are  indicated  by  the  following  utterances  : — 

"  Hysterica  passio,  down,  thou  climbing  sorrow !  " 
"  Oh,  that  way  madness  lies  ;  let  me  shun  that." 
M  What,  have  his  daughters  brought  him  to  this  pass  ?  " 
"  Off,  off  you  lendings  !     Come,  unbutton  here." 

"  As  I  am  a  man,  I  think  this  lady 
To  be  my  child  Cordelia." 

3.  Explain  the  following  : — 

(a)  "Is  it  but  this,  a  tardiness  in  nature, 

Which  often  leaves  the  history  un spoke 
That  it  intends  to  do?" 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  268(in) 

(6)  "  Let  the  great  gods, 

That  keep  this  dreadful  pother  o'er  our  heads, 
Find  out  their  enemies  now." 

(c)  "  Thou  simular  man  of  virtue." 

(d)  "  The  fishermen  that  walk  upon  the  beach 

Appear  like  mice." 

(e)  "  The  wheel  is  come  full  circle." 

4.  Paraphrase  the  following  passage  fully  in  simple  prose : — 

**  There  is  division, 
Although  as  yet  the  face  of  it  be  covered 
With  mutual  cunning,  'twixt  Albany  and  Cornwall, 
Who  have — as  who  have  not,  that  their  great  stars 
Throned  and  set  on  high  ?    Servants,  who  seem  no  less, 
Which  are  to  France  the  spies  and  speculations 
Intelligent  of  our  state  ;  what  hath  been  seen, 
Either  in  snuffs  and  packings  of  the  dukes, 
Or  the  hard  rein  which  both  of  them  have  borne 
Against  the  old  kind  King  ;  or  something  deeper, 
Whereof  perchance  these  are  but  furnishings  ; 
But  true  it  is,  from  France  there  comes  a  power 
Into  this  scattered  Kingdom ;  who  already, 
Wise  in  our  negligence  have  secret  feet 
In  some  of  our  best  ports,  and  are  at  point 
To  show  their  open  banner." 

Suction  II. — Selections  from  Addison. 

5.  Analyse  the  following  passage,  and  parse  the  words  in  italics  : — 
"There  are  some  opinions  in  which  a  man  should  stand  neutert 

without  engaging  his  assent  to  one  side  or  the  other.  Such  a  hovering 
faith  as  this,  which  refuses  to  setth  upon  any  determination,  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  in  a  mind  that  is  careful  to  avoid  errors  and  pre- 
possession. When  the  arguments  press  equally  on  both  sides  in 
matters  that  are  indifferent  to  us,  the  safest  method  is  to  give  up 
ourselves  to  neither." 

6.  What  does  Addison  himself  state  to  be  "  the  great  aim  of  these 
my  speculations"  ?  Consider  this  in  relation  to  the  tendencies  of  the 
age  in  which  he  lived. 

7.  What  persons,  or  class  of  persons,  are  depicted  under  the  name 
of  Tom  Folio,  the  Political  Upholsterer,  the  Trunkmaker  at  the  Play, 
Will  Honeycourt?  Give  a  brief  summary  of  Addison's  description 
of  one  of  them. 

8.  Give  a  short  sketch  of  any  one  of  the  Essays  which  you 
remember. 

Section  III. — As  You  Like  It. 

9.  To  what  period  of  Shakespeare's  literary  career  does  As  You 
Like  It  belong?  Give  reasons  for  your  answer.  From  where  did 
Shakespeare  obtain  the  story  t 


268(n)  EXAMINATION    QUESTIONS. 

10.  Describe  either  the  last  scene  of  As  You  Like  It,  or  the  scene 
in  which  Orlando  appears  before  the  Duke  and  his  Lords  in  the 
Forest. 

11.  Sketch  the  character  of  Jacques,  referring  to  passages  of  the 
play  in  support  of  your  statements. 

12.  Compare  Rosalind  with  any  other  of  Shakespeare's  heroines. 

SET  E. 

(Three  hours  allowed  for  this  paper.) 

Candidates  must  not  answer  more  than  six  questions,  which  must  include  one  from 
each  Section. 

If  more  than  six  questions  are  attempted,  only  the  six  answers  coming  first  on 
your  paper  will  be  revised. 

Section  I. — King  Henry  VIII. 

1.  Explain,  as  to  a  class,  any  difficulties  of  expression  in  three  only 
of  the  four  following  extracts,  briefly  noting  the  context  in  which 
they  occur : — 

(a)  "  I  have  been  begging  sixteen  years  in  court, 
Am  yet  a  courtier  beggarly,  nor  could 
Come  pat  betwixt  too  early  and  too  late 
For  any  suit  of  pounds. " 

(6)  "  If  he  know 

That  I  am  free  of  your  report,  he  knows 
I  am  not  of  your  wrong." 

(c)  "The  question  did  at  first  so  stagger  me, 

Bearing  a  state  of  mighty  moment  in  't 
And  consequence  of  dread,  that  I  committed 
The  daring'st  counsel  which  I  had  to  doubt." 

(d)  "You  have  scarce  time 
To  steal  from  spiritual  leisure  a  brief  span 
To  keep  your  earthly  audit  ;  sure,  in  that 
I  deem  you  an  ill  husband,  and  am  glad 
To  have  you  therein  my  companion." 

2.  Explain  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  "  To-day  the  French 

All  clinquant,  all  in  gold,  like  heathen  gods 
Shone  down  the  English  ;  and,  to-morrow,  they 
Made  Britain  India. " 

(b)  "Out  of  mere  ambition  you  have  caused 

Your  holy  hat  to  be  stamped  on  the  king's  coin." 

(c)  "But  as  when 

The  bird  of  wonder  dies,  the  maiden  Phoenix, 

Her  ashes  new  create  another  heir, 

As  great  in  admiration  as  herself  ; 

So  shall  she  leave  her  blessedness  to  one." 

3.  Briefly  describe,  as  presented  in  this  play,  the  character  of 
Wolsey,  or  of  King  Henry  vni. 


EXAMINATION   QUESTIONS.  268(o) 

Section  II. — Paradise  Lost,  Books  I.  and  n. 

1.  Explain,  with  reference  to  the  context  in  which  they  occur, 
with  brief  notes  on  any  point  which  seems  to  you  to  require  it,  the 
following  passages  :  — 

(a)  "  All  is  not  lost — the  unconquerable  will 
And  study  of  revenge,  immortal  hate 
And  courage  never  to  submit  or  yield  : 
And  what  is  else  not  to  be  overcome." 

(6)  "  Our  torments  also,  may  in  length  of  time 
Become  our  elements,  these  piercing  fires 
As  soft  as  now  severe,  our  temper  changed 
Into  their  temper,  which  must  needs  remove 
The  sensible  of  pain." 

(c)  "  Direct  my  course  : 

Directed,  no  mean  recompense  it  brings 
To  your  behoof,  if  I  that  region  lost, 
All  usurpation  thence  expelled,  reduce 
To  her  original  darkness  and  your  sway." 

2.  Explain  the  following  passages  : — 

(a)  "  When  with  fierce  winds  Orion  armed 

Hath  vexed  the  Red  Sea  Coast,  whose  waves  o'erthrew 
Busiris  and  his  Memphian  chivalry." 

(b)  "  A  leper  once  he  lost  and  gained  a  king." 

(c)  "  Or  whom  Biserta  sent  from  Afric'  shore 

When  Charlemain  with  all  his  peerage  fell 
By  Fontarabbia." 

(d)  "Medusa,  with  Gorgonian  terror  guards 

The  ford,  and  of  itself  the  water  flies 
In  taste  of  living  weight,  as  once  it  fled 
The  lip  of  Tantalus." 

3.  Compare  the  character  of  any  one  of  the  Spirits,  as  described  in 
Book  i.,  with  his  speech  given  in  Book  n. 

Section  III. — The  Tempest,  and  Leigh  Hunt's  Essays. 

1.  To  what  period  of  Shakespeare's  life  is  The  Tempest  assigned, 
and  on  what  grounds  ?     Mention  any  historical  allusions  in  the  play. 

2.  What  other  plays  belong  to  the  same  period  ?  State  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  tone  and  feeling  of  these  plays,  as  shown  in  The 
Tempest. 

3.  Describe  tht  character  of  Prospero  or  Caliban. 

4.  Give  a  short  account  of  Leigh  Hunt's  life.  Who  were  his  chief 
literary  friends  and  contemporaries  ? 

5.  Give  a  sketch  of  the  essay  on  M  The  Realities  of  the  Imagination," 
or  on  "  Dreams." 

6.  What  characteristic  features  of  Leigh  Hunt's  work  can  be  illus- 
trated from  the  paper  on  u  Tea-Drinking,"  or  "  Breakfast  in  Summer," 
or  "  Shakespeare's  Birthday  "  ? 


PART   IIL 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 


271 


INTRODUCTION. 

1.  Tongue,  Speech,  Language. — We  speak  of  the  "English 
tongue"  or  of  the  "French  language";  and  we  say  of  two 
nations  that  they  "do  not  understand  each  other's  speech." 
The  existence  of  these  three  words — speech,  tongue,  language 
— proves  to  us  that  a  language  is  something  spoken, — that  it  is 
a  number  of  sounds;  and  that  the  writing  or  printing  of  it 
upon  paper  is  a  quite  secondary  matter.  Language,  rightly 
considered,  then,  is  an  organised  set  of  sounds.  These 
sounds  convey  a  meaning  from  the  mind  of  the  speaker  to 
the  mind  of  the  hearer,  and  thus  serve  to  connect  man  with 
man 

2.  Written  Language. — It  took  many  hundreds  of  years— 
perhaps  thousands — before  human  beings  were  able  to  invent  a 
mode  of  writing  upon  paper — that  is,  of  representing  sounds 
by  signs.  These  signs  are  called  letters ;  and  the  whole  set  of 
them  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Alphabet — from  the  two  first 
letters  of  the  Greek  alphabet,  which  are  called  alpha,  beta. 
There  are  languages  that  have  never  been  put  upon  paper  at 
all,  such  as  many  of  the  African  languages,  many  in  the  South 
Sea  Islands,  and  other  parts  of  the  globe.  But  in  all  cases, 
every  language  that  we  know  anything  about — English,  Latin, 
French,  German — existed  for  hundreds  of  years  before  any  one 
thought  of  writing  it  down  on  paper. 

3.  A  Language  Grows. — A  language  is  an  organism  or 
organic  existence.  Now  every  organism  lives;  and,  if  it 
lives,  it  grows  ;  and,  if  it  grows,  it  also  dies.  Our  language 
grows ;  it  is  growing  still ;  and  it  has  been  growing  for  many 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

hundreds  of  years.  As  it  grows  it  loses  something,  and  it  gains 
something  else ;  it  alters  its  appearance ;  changes  take  place  in 
this  part  of  it  and  in  that  part, — until  at  length  its  appearance 
in  age  is  something  almost  entirely  different  from  what  it  was 
in  its  early  youth.  If  we  had  the  photograph  of  a  man  of 
forty,  and  the  photograph  of  the  same  person  when  he  was  a 
child  of  one,  we  should  find,  on  comparing  them,  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  point  to  the  smallest  trace  of  likeness  in 
the  features  of  the  two  photographs.  And  yet  the  two  pictures 
represent  the  same  person.  And  so  it  is  with  the  English 
language.  The  oldest  English,  which  is  usually  called  Anglo- 
Saxon,  is  as  different  from  our  modern  English  as  if  they  were 
two  distinct  languages ;  and  yet  they  are  not  two  languages,  but 
really  and  fundamentally  one  and  the  same.  Modern  English 
differs  from  the  oldest  English  as  a  giant  oak  does  from  a  small 
oak  sapling,  or  a  broad  stalwart  man  of  forty  does  from  a  feeble 
infant  of  a  few  months  old. 

4.  The  English  Language. — The  English  language  is  the 
speech  spoken  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in  England,  in  most- 
parts  of  Scotland,  in  the  larger  part  of  Ireland,  in  the  United 
States,  in  Canada,  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  in  South 
Africa,  and  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world.  In  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century  it  was  spoken  by  a  few  thousand  men  who 
had  lately  landed  in  England  from  the  Continent :  it  is  now 
spoken  by  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people.  In 
the  course  of  the  next  sixty  years,  it  will  probably  be  the  speech 
of  three  hundred  millions. 

5.  English  on  the  Continent. — In  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  it  was  spoken  in  the  north-west  corner  of  Europe — 
between  the  mouths  of  the  Ehine,  the  Weser,  and  the  Elbe  j 
and  in  Schleswig  there  is  a  small  district  which  is  called  Angeln 
to  this  day.  But  it  was  not  then  called  English ;  it  was  more 
probably  called  Teutish,  or  Teutsch,  or  Deutsch — all  words 
connected  with  a  generic  word  which  covers  many  families  and 
languages — Teutonic.  It  was  a  rough  guttural  speech  of  one 
or  two  thousand  words;  and  it  was  brought  over  to  this  country 
by  the  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons  in  the  year  449.     These 


INTRODUCTION.  273 

men  left  their  home  on  the  Continent  to  find  l^ere  farms  to  till 
and  houses  to  live  in ;  and  they  drove  the  inhabitants  of  the 
island — the  Britons — ever  farther  and  farther  west,  until  they 
at  length  left  them  in  peace  in  the  more  mountainous  parts  of 
the  island — in  the  southern  and  western  corners,  in  Cornwall 
and  in  Wales. 

6.  The  British  Language. — What  language  did  the  Teutonic 
conquerors,  who  wrested  the  lands  from  the  poor  Britons,  find 
spoken  in  this  island  when  they  first  set  foot  on  it?  Not  a 
Teutonic  speech  at  all.  They  found  a  language  not  one  word  of 
which  they  could  understand.  The  island  itself  was  then  called 
Britain;  and  the  tongue  spoken  in  it  belonged  to  the  Keltic 
group  of  languages.  Languages  belonging  to  the  Keltic  group 
are  still  spoken  in  Wales,  in  Brittany  (in  France),  in  the  High- 
lands of  Scotland,  in  the  west  of  Ireland,  and  in  the  Isle  of 
Man.  A  few  words — very  few — from  the  speech  of  the  Britons, 
have  come  into  our  own  English  language ;  and  what  these  are 
we  shall  see  by-and-by. 

7.  The  Family  to  which  English  belongs.— Our  English 
tongue  belongs  to  the  Aryan  or  Indo-European  Family  of 
languages.  That  is  to  say,  the  main  part  or  substance  of  it  can 
be  traced  back  to  the  race  which  inhabited  the  high  table-lands 
that  lie  to  the  back  of  the  western  end  of  the  great  range  of  the 
Himalaya,  or  "Abode  of  Snow."  This  Aryan  race  grew  and 
increased,  and  spread  to  the  south  and  west ;  and  from  it  have 
sprung  languages  which  are  now  spoken  in  India,  in  Persia,  in 
Greece  and  Italy,  in  France  and  Germany,  in  Scandinavia,  and 
in  Russia.  From  this  Aryan  family  we  are  sprung ;  out  of  the 
oldest  Aryan  speech  our  own  language  has  grown. 

8.  The  Group  to  which  English  belongs.  —  The  Indo- 
European  family  of  languages  consists  of  several  groups.  One 
of  these  is  called  the  Teutonic  Group,  because  it  is  spoken  by 
the  Teuts  (or  the  Teutonic  race),  who  are  found  in  Germany, 
in  England  and  Scotland,  in  Holland,  in  parts  of  Belgium,  in 
Denmark,  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  in  Iceland,  and  the  Faroe 
Islands.  The  Teutonic  group  consists  of  three  branches — 
High    German,    Low    German,   and    Scandinavian.      High 


274  HISTORY  OF   THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

German  is  the  name  given  to  the  kind  of  German  spoken  in 
Upper  Germany — that  is,  in  the  table-land  which  lies  south  of 
the  river  Main,  and  which  rises  gradually  till  it  runs  into  the 
Alps.  New  High  German  is  the  German  of  books — the 
literary  language — the  German  that  is  taught  and  learned  in 
schools.  Low  German  is  the  name  given  to  the  German 
dialects  spoken  in  the  lowlands — in  the  German  part  of  the 
Great  Plain  of  Europe,  and  round  the  mouths  of  those  German 
rivers  that  flow  into  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Sea.  Scan- 
dinavian is  the  name  given  to  the  languages  spoken  in 
Denmark  and  in  the  great  Scandinavian  Peninsula.  Of  these 
three  languages,  Danish  and  Norwegian  are  practically  the  same 
— their  literary  or  book-language  is  one  ;  while  Swedish  is  very 
different.  Icelandic  is  the  oldest  and  purest  form  of  Scandina- 
vian.    The  following  is  a  table  of  the 

GROUP   OF   TEUTONIC   LANGUAGES. 

TEUTONIC. 
I 


Low  German.  High  German.  Scandinavian. 


I  I  I  I  III  I  I  I  I 

Dutch.    Flemish.    Frisian.    English.         Old.    Middle.    New.         Icelandic.  Dansk  Ferroic.   Rvensk 

(or  Norsk).  (Swedish}. 

It  will  be  observed,  on  looking  at  the  above  table,  that  High 
German  is  subdivided  according  to  time,  but  that  the  other 
groups  are  subdivided  according  to  space. 

9.  English  a  Low-German  Speech. — Our  English  tongue  is 
the  lowest  of  all  Low-German  dialects.  Low  German  is  the 
German  spoken  in  the  lowlands  of  Germany.  As  we  descend 
the  rivers,  we  come  to  the  lowest  level  of  all — the  level  of  the 
sea.  Our  English  speech,  once  a  mere  dialect,  came  down  to 
that,  crossed  the  German  Ocean,  and  settled  in  Britain,  to  which 
it  gave  in  time  the  name  of  Angla-land  or  England.  The  Low 
German  spoken  in  the  Netherlands  is  called  Dutch ;  the  Low 
German  spoken  in  Eriesland — a  prosperous  province  of  Holland 
— is  called  Frisian;  and  the  Low  German  spoken  in  Great 
Britain  is  called  English.  These  three  languages  are  extremely 
like  one  another;  but  the  Continental  language  that  is  likest 


INTRODUCTION.  275 

the  English  is  the  Dutch  or  Hollandish  dialect  called  Frisian. 
We  even  possess  a  couplet,  every  word  of  which  is  both  Eng- 
lish and  Frisian.     It  runs  thus — 

Good  butter  and  good  cheese 

Is  good  English  and  good  Fries. 

10.  Dutch  and  Welsh — a  Contrast. — When  the  Teuton  con- 
querors came  to  this  country,  they  called  the  Britons  foreigners, 
just  as  the  Greeks  called  all  other  peoples  besides  themselves 
barbarians.  By  this  they  did  not  at  first  mean  that  they  were 
uncivilised,  but  only  that  they  were  not  Greeks.  Now,  the 
Teutonic  or  Saxon  or  English  name  for  foreigners  was  Wealhas, 
a  word  afterwards  contracted  into  Welsh.  To  this  day  the 
modern  Teuts  or  Teutons  (or  Germans,  as  we  call  them)  call 
all  Frenchmen  and  Italians  Welshmen;  and,  when  a  German 
peasant  crosses  the  border  into  France,  he  says :  "  I  am  going 
into  Welshland." 

11.  The  Spread  of  English  over  Britain. — The  Jutes,  who 
came  from  Juteland  or  Jylland — now  called  Jutland — settled  in 
Kent  and  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  The  Saxons  settled  in  the 
south  and  western  parts  of  England,  and  gave  their  names  to 
those  kingdoms — now  counties — whose  names  came  to  end  in 
sex.  There  was  the  kingdom  of  the  East  Saxons,  or  Essex ; 
the  kingdom  of  the  West  Saxons,  or  Wessex ;  the  kingdom  of 
the  Middle  Saxons,  or  Middlesex;  and  the  kingdom  of  the 
South  Saxons,  or  Sussex.  The  Angles  settled  chiefly  on  the 
east  coast.  The  kingdom  of  East  Anglia  was  divided  into  the 
regions  of  the  North  Fofic  and  the  South  Folk,  words  which 
are  still  perpetuated  in  the  names  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.  These 
three  sets  of  Teutons  all  spoke  different  dialects  of  the  same 
Teutonic  speech;  and  these  dialects,  with  their  differences, 
peculiarities,  and  odd  habits,  took  root  in  English  soil,  and 
lived  an  independent  life,  apart  from  each  other,  uninfluenced 
by  ea^h  other,  for  several  hundreds  of  years.  But,  in  the  slow 
course  of  time,  they  joined  together  to  make  up  our  beautiful 
English  language — a  language  which,  however,  still  bears  in 
itself  the  traces  of  dialectic  forms,  and  is  in  no  respect  of  one 
kind  or  of  one  fibre  all  through. 


276 


CHAPTEE    I. 


THE    PERI0D8    OF    ENGLISH. 


1.  Dead  and  Living  Languages. — A  language  is  said  to  be 
dead  when  it  is  no  longer  spoken.  Such  a  language  we  know 
only  in  books.  Thus,  Latin  is  a  dead  language,  because  no 
nation  anywhere  now  speaks  it.  A  dead  language  can  undergo 
no  change  ;  it  remains,  and  must  remain,  as  we  find  it  written 
in  books.  But  a  living  language  is  always  changing,  just  like 
a  tree  or  the  human  body.  The  human  body  has  its  periods  or 
stages.  There  is  the  period  of  infancy,  the  period  of  boyhood, 
the  period  of  manhood,  and  the  period  of  old  age.  In  the  same 
way,  a  language  has  its  periods. 

2.  No  Sudden  Changes — a  Caution. — We  divide  the  Eng- 
lish language  into  periods,  and  then  mark,  with  some  approach 
to  accuracy,  certain  distinct  changes  in  the  habits  of  our  lan- 
guage, in  the  inflexions  of  its  words,  in  the  kind  of  words  it 
preferred,  or  in  the  way  it  liked  to  put  its  words  together.  But 
we  must  be  carefully  on  our  guard  against  fancying  that,  at  any 
given  time  or  in  any  given  year,  the  English  people  threw  aside 
one  set  of  habits  as  regards  language,  and  adopted  another  set. 
It  is  not  so,  nor  can  it  be  so.  The  changes  in  language  are  as 
gentle,  gradual,  and  imperceptible  as  the  changes  in  the  growth 
of  a  tree  or  in  the  skin  of  the  human  body.  We  renew  our 
skin  slowly  and  gradually ;  but  we  are  never  conscious  of  the 
process,  nor  can  we  say  at  any  given  time  that  we  have  got  a 
completely  new  skin. 


THE  PERIODS  OF  ENGLISH.  277 

3.  The  Periods  of  English. — Bearing  this  caution  in  mind, 
we  can  go  on  to  look  at  the  chief  periods  in  our  English  lan- 
guage.    These  are  five  in  number ;  and  they  are  as  follows  : — 

L  Ancient  English  or  Anglo-Saxon,          .  449-1100 

II.  Early  English,     ....  1100-1250 

III.  Middle  English,  .           ..            .            .  1250-1485 

IV.  Tudor  English, 1485-1603 

V.  Modern  English,             .            .            .  1603-19— 

These  periods  merge  very  slowly,  or  are  shaded  off,  so  to  speak, 
into  each  other  in  the  most  gradual  way.  If  we  take  the  Eng- 
lish of  1250  and  compare  it  with  that  of  900,  we  shall  find  a 
great  difference  ;  but  if  we  compare  it  with  the  English  of  1100 
the  difference  is  not  so  marked.  The  difference  between  the 
English  of  the  nineteenth  and  the  English  of  the  fourteenth 
century  is  very  great,  but  the  difference  between  the  English  of 
the  fourteenth  and  that  of  the  thirteenth  century  is  very  small. 

4.  Ancient  EngHsh  or  Anglo-Saxon,  450-1100. — This  form  of 
English  differed  from  modern  English  in  having  a  much  largei 
number  of  inflexions.  The  noun  had  five  cases,  and  there  were 
several  declensions,  just  as  in  Latin ;  adjectives  were  declined, 
and  had  three  genders ;  some  pronouns  had  a  dual  as  well  as  a 
plural  number ;  and  the  verb  had  a  much  larger  number  of  inflex- 
ions than  it  has  now.  The  vocabulary  of  the  language  con- 
tained very  few  foreign  elements.  The  poetry  of  the  language 
employed  head-rhyme  or  alliteration,  and  not  end-rhyme,  as  we 
do  now.  The  works  of  the  poet  Caedmon  and  the  great  prose- 
writer  King  Alfred  belong  to  this  Anglo-Saxon  period. 

5.  Early  English,  1100-1250. — The  coming  of  the  Normans  in 
1066  made  many  changes  in  the  land,  many  changes  in  the 
Church  and  in  the  State,  and  it  also  introduced  many  changes 
into  the  language.  The  inflexions  of  our  speech  began  to  drop 
off,  because  they  were  used  less  and  less ;  and  though  we  never 
adopted  new  inflexions  from  French  or  from  any  other  language, 
new  French  words  began  to  creep  in.  In  some  parts  of  the 
country  English  had  ceased  to  be  written  in  books;  the  lan- 
guage existed  as  a  spoken  language  only ;  and  hence  accuracy 
in  the  use  of  words  and  the  inflexions  of  words  could  not  be 


278  HISTORY  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

ensured.  Two  notable  books — written,  not  printed,  for  there 
was  no  printing  in  this  island  till  the  year  1474 — belong  to  this 
period.  These  are  the  Ormulum,  by  Orm  or  Ormin,  and  the 
Brut,  by  a  monk  called  Layamon  or  Laweman.  The  latter 
tells  the  story  of  Brutus,  who  was  believed  to  have  been  the  son 
of  iEneas  of  Troy ;  to  have  escaped  after  the  downfall  of  that 
city;  to  have  sailed  through  the  Mediterranean,  ever  farthei 
and  farther  to  the  west ;  to  have  landed  in  Britain,  settled 
here,  and  given  the  country  its  name. 

6.  Middle  English,  1250-1485.— Most  of  the  inflexions  of 
nouns  and  adjectives  have  in  this  period — between  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  and  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — com- 
pletely disappeared.  The  inflexions  of  verbs  are  also  greatly 
reduced  in  number.  The  strong 1  mode  of  inflexion  has  ceased 
to  be  employed  for  verbs  that  are  new-comers,  and  the  weak 
mode  has  been  adopted  in  its  place.  During  the  earlier  part  of 
this  period,  even  country-people  tried  to  speak  French,  and 
in  this  and  other  modes  many  French  words  found  their 
way  into  English.  A  writer  of  the  fourteenth  century,  John 
de  Trevisa,  says  that  country-people  "fondeth  [that  is,  try] 
•with  great  bysynes  for  to  speke  Freynsch  for  to  be  more  y-told 
of."  The  country-people  did  not  succeed  very  well,  as  the 
ordinary  proverb  shows :  "  Jack  would  be  a  gentleman  if  he 
could  speak  French."  Boys  at  school  were  expected  to  turn 
their  Latin  into  French,  and  in  the  courts  of  law  French 
only  was  allowed  to  be  spoken.  But  in  1362  Edward  III. 
gave  his  assent  to  an  Act  of  Parliament  allowing  English  to 
be  used  instead  of  Norman-French.  "  The  yer  of  oure  Lord," 
says  John  de  Trevisa,  "a  thousond  thre  hondred  foure  score 
and  fyve  of  the  secunde  Kyng  Bichard  after  the  conquest,  in  al 
the  gramer  scoles  of  Engelond  children  leveth  Freynsch,  and 
construeth  and  lerneth  an  Englysch."  To  the  first  half  of  this 
period  belong  a  Metrical  Chronicle,  attributed  to  Robert  of 
Gloucester;  Langtoft's  Metrical  Chronicle,  translated  by 
Robert  de  Brunne ;  the  Agenbite  of  Inwit,  by  Dan  Michel 
of  Xorthgate  in  Kent ;  and  a  few  others.  But  to  the  second 
i  Se*  p.  43. 


THE  PERIODS  OF  ENGLISH.  279 

half  belong  the  rich  and  varied  productions  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
our  first  great  poet  and  always  one  of  our  greatest  writers ;  the 
alliterative  poems  of  William  Langley  or  Langlande;  the 
more  learned  poems  of  John  G-ower;  and  the  translation  of 
the  Bible  and  theological  works  of  the  reformer  John  "Wyclif. 

7.  Tudor  English,  1485-1603. — Before  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  almost  all  our  inflexions  had  disappeared.  The  great 
dramatist  Ben  Jonson  (1574-1637)  laments  the  loss  of  the  plural 
ending  en  for  verbs,  because  wenten  and  hopen  were  much  more 
musical  and  more  useful  in  verse  than  went  or  hope;  but  its 
recovery  was  already  past  praying  for.  This  period  is  remark- 
able for  the  introduction  of  an  enormous  number  of  Latin 
words,  and  this  was  due  to  the  new  interest  taken  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  Eomans — an  interest  produced  by  what  is  called  the 
Revival  of  Letters.  But  the  most  striking,  as  it  is  also  the 
most  important  fact  relating  to  this  period,  is  the  appearance  of 
a  group  of  dramatic  writers,  the  greatest  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  Chief  among  these  was  William  Shakespeare.  Of 
pure  poetry  perhaps  the  greatest  writer  was  Edmund  Spenser. 
The  greatest  prose-writer  was  Richard  Hooker,  and  the  pithiest 
Francis  Bacon. 

8.  Modern  English,  1603-19—. — The  grammar  of  the  language 
was  fixed  before  this  period,  most  of  the  accidence  having  en- 
tirely vanished.  The  vocabulary  of  the  language,  however,  has 
gone  on  increasing,  and  is  still  increasing ;  for  the  English 
language,  like*  the  English  people,  is  always  ready  to  offer 
hospitality  to  all  peaceful  foreigners — words  or  human  beings — 
that  will  land  and  settle  within  her  coasts.  And  the  tendency 
at  the  present  time  is  not  only  to  give  a  hearty  welcome  to  new- 
comers from  other  lands,  but  to  call  back  old  words  and  old 
phrases  that  had  been  allowed  to  drop  out  of  existence.  Tenny- 
son was  one  oi  the  chief  agents  in  this  happy  restoratioa 


280 


CHAPTER   II. 

rHE    HISTORY    OF    THE  VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH    LANGUAGE 

1.  The  English  Nation. — The  English  people  have  for  many 
centuries  been  the  greatest  travellers  in  the  world.  An  English- 
man— Drake — was  among  the  first  to  sail  round  the  globe  j  and 
the  English  have  colonised  more  foreign  lands  in  every  part 
of  the  world  than  any  other  people  that  ever  existed.  The 
English  in  this  way  have  been  influenced  by  the  world  with- 
out. But  they  have  also  been  subjected  to  manifold  influences 
from  within  —  they  have  been  exposed  to  greater  political 
changes,  and  profounder  though  quieter  political  revolutions, 
than  any  other  nation.  In  1066  they  were  conquered  by  the 
Norman  -  French ;  and  for  several  centuries  they  had  French 
kings.  Seeing  and  talking  with  many  different  peoples,  they 
learned  to  adopt  foreign  words  with  ease,  and  *to  give  them  a 
home  among  the  native-born  words  of  the  language.  Trade  is 
always  a  kindly  and  useful  influence  j  and  the  trade  of  Great 
Britain  has  for  many  centuries  been  larger  than  that  of  any 
other  nation.  It  has  spread  into  every  part  of  the  world;  it 
gives  and  receives  from  all  tribes  and  nations,  from  every 
speech  and  tongue. 

2.  The  English  Element  in  English. — When  the  English 
came  to  this  island  in  the  fifth  century,  the  number  of  words  in 
the  language  they  spoke  was  probably  not  over  two  thousand. 
Now,  however,  we  possess  a  vocabulary  of  perhaps  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  words.      And  so  eager  and  willing 


VOCABULARY  OF   THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  281 

have  we  been  to  welcome  foreign  words,  that  it  may  be  said 
with  truth  that :  The  majority  of  words  in  the  English 
Tongue  are  not  English.  In  fact,  if  we  take  the  Latin 
language  by  itself,  there  are  in  our  language  more  Latin  words 
than  English.  But  the  grammar  is  distinctly  English,  and  not 
Latin  at  alL 

3.  The  Spoken  Language  and  the  Written  Language — 
a  Caution. — We  must  not  forget  what  has  been  said  about  a 
language, — that  it  is  not  a  printed  thing — not  a  set  of  black 
marks  upon  paper,  but  that  it  is  in  truest  truth  a  tongue  or  a 
speech.  Hence  we  must  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the 
spoken  language  and  the  written  or  printed  language ;  be- 
tween the  language  of  the  ear  and  the  language  of  the  eye; 
between  the  language  of  the  mouth  and  the  language  of  the 
dictionary ;  between  the  moving  vocabulary  of  the  market  and 
the  street,  and  the  fixed  vocabulary  that  has  been  catalogued 
and  imprisoned  in  our  dictionaries.  If  we  can  only  keep  this  in 
view,  we  shall  find  that,  though  there  are  more  Latin  words  in 
our  vocabulary  than  English,  the  English  words  we  possess  are 
used  in  speaking  a  hundred  times,  or  even  a  thousand  times, 
oftener  than  the  Latin  words.  It  is  the  genuine  English  words 
that  have  life  and  movement ;  it  is  they  that  fly  about  in  houses, 
in  streets,  and  in  markets ;  it  is  they  that  express  with  greatest 
force  our  truest  and  most  usual  sentiments — our  inmost  thoughts 
and  our  deepest  feelings.  Latin  words  are  found  often  enough 
in  books ;  but,  when  an  English  man  or  woman  is  deeply  moved, 
he  speaks  pure  English  and  nothing  else.  Words  are  the 
coin  of  human  intercourse;  and  it  is  the  native  coin  of  pure 
English  with  the  native  stamp  that  is  in  daily  circulation. 

4.  A  Diagram  of  English. — If  we  were  to  try  to  represent  to 
the  eye  the  proportions  of  the  different  elements  in  our  vocab- 
ulary, as  it  is  found  in  the  dictionary,  the  diagram  would  take 
something  like  the  following  form  :— 


282  HISTORY  OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

DIAGRAM  OF  THE  ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 


English  Words. 


Latin  Words 
(including  Norman-French,  which  are  also  Latin). 


Greek  Words. 


Italian,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  Dutch,  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Hindustani, 
Persian,  Malay,  American,  etc.  etc. 


5.  The   Foreign  Elements  in  our  English  Vocabulary. — 

The  different  peoples  and  the  different  circumstances  with 
which  we  have  come  in  contact,  have  had  many  results — one 
among  others,  that  of  presenting  us  with  contributions  to  our 
vocabulary.  We  found  Kelts  here  j  and  hence  we  have  a 
number  of  Keltic  words  in  our  vocabulary.  The  Romans  held 
this  island  for  several  hundred  years ;  and  when  they  had  to 
go  in  the  year  410,  they  left  behind  them  a  few  Latin  words, 
which  we  have  inherited.  In  the  seventh  century,  Augustine 
and  his  missionary  monks  from  Eome  brought  over  to  us  a 
larger  number  of  Latin  words ;  and  the  Church  which  they 
founded  introduced  ever  more  and  more  words  from  Rome. 
The  Danes  began  to  come  over  to  this  island  in  the  eighth 
century ;  we  had  for  some  time  a  Danish  dynasty  seated  on  the 
throne  of  England  :  and  hence  we  possess  many  Danish  words. 
The  Norman-French  invasion  in  the  eleventh  century  brought 
us  many  hundreds  of  Latin  words ;  for  French  is  in  reality  a 
branch  of  the  Latin  tongue.  The  Revival  of  Learning  in  the 
sixteenth  century  gave  us  several  thousands  of  Latin  words. 
And  wherever  our  sailors  and  merchants  have  gone,  they  have 
brought  back  with  them  foreign  words  as  well  as  foreign  things 
— Arabic  words  from  Arabia  and  Africa,  Hindustani  words  from 
India,  Persian  words  from  Persia,  Chinese  words  from  China, 
and  even  Malay  words  from  the  peninsula  of  Malacca.  Let  us 
look  a  little  more  closely  at  these  foreign  elements. 

6.  The  Keltic    Element   in   English. — This   element  is   of 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  283 

three  kinds :  (i)  Those  words  which  we  received  direct  from 
the  ancient  Britons  whom  we  found  in  the  island  j  (ii)  those 
which  the  Norman-French  brought  with  them  from  Gaul ;  (iii) 
those  which  have  lately  come  into  the  language  from  the  High- 
lands of  Scotland,  or  from  Ireland,  or  from  the  writings  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott. 

7.  The  First  Keltic  Element. — This  first  contribution  con- 
tains the  following  words :  Bannock,  clout,  crock,  taper, 
darn,  di-udge,  mug,  posset;  dun  (brown);  glen,  hassock,  knob, 
mattock,  pool.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  first  eight  in 
the  list  are  the  names  of  domestic — some  even  of  kitchen — 
things  and  utensils.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  us  to 
conjecture  that  in  many  cases  the  Saxon  invader  married 
a  British  wife,  who  spoke  her  own  language,  taught  her 
children  to  speak  their  mother  tongue,  and  whose  words 
took  firm  root  in  the  kitchen  of  the  new  English  house- 
hold. The  names  of  most  rivers,  mountains,  lakes,  and  hills 
are,  of  course,  Keltic  ;  for  these  names  would  not  be  likely  to 
be  changed  by  the  English  new-comers.  There  are  two  names  for 
rivers  which  are  found — in  one  form  or  another — in  every  part 
of  Great  Britain.  These  are  the  names  Avon  and  Ex.  The 
word  Avon  means  simply  water.  We  can  conceive  the  children 
on  a  farm  near  a  river  speaking  of  it  simply  as  "  the  water " ; 
and  hence  we  find  fourteen  Avons  in  this  island.  Ex  also 
means  water;  and  there  are  perhaps  more  than  twenty  streams 
in  Great  Britain  with  this  name.  The  word  appears  as  Ex  in 
Exeter  (the  older  and  fuller  form  being  Exanceaster — the  camp 
on  the  Exe)  ;  as  Ax  in  Axminster ;  as  Ox  in  Oxford ;  as  Ux 
in  "Oxbridge ;  and  as  Ouse  in  Yorkshire  and  other  eastern 
counties.  In  Wales  and  Scotland,  the  hidden  k  changes  its 
place  and  comes  at  the  end.  Thus  in  Wales  we  find  Usk ;  and 
in  Scotland,  Esk.  There  are  at  least  eight  Esks  in  the  kingdom 
of  Scotland  alone.  The  commonest  Keltic  name  for  a  mountain 
is  Pen  or  Ben  (in  Wales  it  is  Pen;  in  Scotland  the  flatter 
form  Ben  is  used).  We  find  this  word  in  England  also  under 
the  form  of  Pennine  ;  and,  in  Italy,  as  Apennine. 

8.  The  Second  Keltic  Element. — The  Normans  came  from 


284  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

Scandinavia  early  in  the  tenth  century,  and  wrested  the  valley 
of  the  Seine  out  of  the  hands  of  Charles  the  Simple,  the  then 
king  of  the  French.  The  language  spoken  by  the  people  of 
France  was  a  broken-down  form  of  spoken  Latin,  which  is  now 
called  French;  but  in  this  language  they  had  retained  many 
Gaulish  words  out  of  the  old  Gaulish  language.  Such  are  the 
words :  Bag,  bargain,  barter ;  barrel,  basin,  basket,  Imdget ; 
bonnet,  garter,  ribbon;  car,  caul ;  mutton,  gown ;  mitten,  motley; 
rogue;  varlet,  vassal ;  truant.  The  above  words  were  brought 
over  to  Britain  by  the  Normans;  and  they  gradually  took  an 
acknowledged  place  among  the  words  of  our  own  language,  and 
have  held  that  place  ever  since. 

9.  The  Third  Keltic  Element. — This  consists  of  compara- 
tively few  words — such  as  clan ;  claymore  (a  sword) ;  philabeg 
(a  kind  of  kilt),  ptarmigan,  brogue  (a  kind  of  shoe),  plaid; 
pibroch  (bagpipe  war-music),  slogan  (a  war-cry) ;  and  whisky, 
Ireland  has  given  us  shamrock,  gag,  log,  clog,  and  brogue — in 
the  sense  of  a  mode  of  speech. 

10.  The  Scandinavian  Element  in  English. — Towards  the 
end  of  the  eighth  century — in  the  year  787 — the  Teutons  of 
the  North,  called  Northmen,  Normans,  or  Norsemen — but  more 
commonly  known  as  Danes — made  their  appearance  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Great  Britain,  and  attacked  the  peaceful  towns 
and  quiet  settlements  of  the  English.  These  attacks  became  so 
frequent,  and  their  occurrence  was  so  much  dreaded,  that  a 
prayer  was  inserted  against  them  in  a  Litany  of  the  time — 
"  From  the  incursions  of  the  Northmen,  good  Lord,  deliver  us  ! " 
In  spite  of  the  resistance  of  the  English,  the  Danes  had,  before 
the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  perma- 
nent footing  in  England ;  and,  in  the  eleventh  century,  a  Danish 
dynasty  sat  upon  the  English  throne  from  the  year  1016  to  1042. 
From  the  time  of  King  Alfred,  the  Danes  of  the  Danelagh 
were  a  settled  part  of  the  population  of  England ;  and  hence 
we  find,  especially  on  the  east  coast,  a  large  number  of  Danish 
names  still  in  use. 

11.  Character  of  the  Scandinavian  Element. — The  North- 
men, as  we  have  said,  were  Teutons ;  and  they  spoke  a  dialect 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  285 

of  the  great  Teutonic  (or  German)  language.  The  sounds  of 
the  Danish  dialect — or  language,  as  it  must  now  be  called — are 
harder  than  those  of  the  German.  We  find  a  k  instead  of  a 
ch ;  a  p  preferred  to  an  £  The  same  is  the  case  in  Scotland, 
where  the  hard  form  kirk  is  preferred  to  the  softer  church. 
Where  the  Germans  say  Dorf — our  English  word  Thorpe,  a 
village — the  Danes  say  Drup. 

I?*  Scandinavian  Words  (i). — The  words  contributed  to  our 
language  by  the  Scandinavians  are  of  two  kinds  :  (i)  Names  of 
places ;  and  (ii)  ordinary  words,  (i)  The  most  striking  instance 
of  a  Danish  place-name  is  the  noun  by,  a  town.  Mr  Isaac 
Taylor  *  tells  us  that  there  are  in  the  east  of  England  more 
than  six  hundred  names  of  towns  ending  in  by.  Almost  all  of 
these  are  found  in  the  Danelagh,  within  the  limits  of  the  great 
highway  made  by  the  Romans  to  the  north-west,  and  well-known 
as  Watling  Street  We  find,  for  example,  Whitby,  or  the 
town  on  the  white  cliffs;  Grimsby,  or  the  town  of  Grim,  a 
great  sea-rover,  who  obtained  for  his  countrymen  the  right  that 
all  ships  from  the  Baltic  should  come  into  the  port  of  Grimsby 
free  of  duty;  Tenby,  that  is  Daneby;  by-law,  a  law  for  a 
special  town;  and  a  vast  number  of  others.  The  following 
Danish  words  also  exist  in  our  times — either  as  separate  and 
individual  words,  or  in  composition — beck,  a  stream ;  fell,  a 
hill  or  table-land ;  firth  or  fiord,  an  arm  of  the  sea — the  same 
as  the  Danish  fiord ;  force,  a  waterfall ;  garth,  a  yard  or  en- 
closure; holm,  an  island  in  a  river;  kirk,  a  church;  oe,  an 
island ;  thorpe,  a  village ;  thwaite,  a  forest  clearing ;  and  vik 
or  wick,  a  station  for  ships,  or  a  creek. 

13.  Scandinavian  Words  (ii). — The  most  useful  and  the 
most  frequently  employed  word  that  we  have  received  from  the 
Danes  is  the  word  are.  The  pure  English  word  for  this  is 
beoth  or  sindon.  The  Danes  gave  us  also  the  habit  of  using 
to  before  an  infinitive.  Their  word  for  to  was  at ;  and  at  still 
survives  and  is  in  use  in  Lincolnshire.  We  find  also  the  fol- 
lowing Danish  words  in  our  language  :  blunt,  bole  (of  a  tree), 
bound  (on  a  journey — properly  boun),  busk  (to  dress),  cake, 

1  Words  and  Places,  p.  158. 
X 


286  HISTOEY  OF  HIE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

call,  clog,  clumsy,  curl,  cut,  dairy,  daze,  dirt,  droop,  fellow, 
flit,  fro,  froward,  hustings,  ill,  irk,  kid,  kindle,  loft,  odd, 
plough,  root,  scold,  sky,  tarn  (a  small  mountain  lake),  weak, 
and  ugly.  It  is  in  Northumberland,  Durham,  Yorkshire,  Lin- 
coln, Norfolk,  and  even  in  the  western  counties  of  Cum- 
berland and  Lancashire,  that  we  find  the  largest  admixture  of 
Scandinavian  words. 

14.  Influence  of  the  Scandinavian  Element. — The  intro- 
duction of  the  Danes  and  the  Danish  language  into  England 
had  the  result,  in  the  east,  of  unsettling  the  inflexions  of  our 
language,  and  thus  of  preparing  the  way  for  their  complete  dis- 
appearance. The  declensions  of  nouns  became  unsettled; 
nouns  that  used  to  make  their  plural  in  a  or  in  u  took  the 
more  striking  plural  suffix  as  that  belonged  to  a  quite  differ- 
ent declension.  The  same  things  happened  to  adjectives, 
verbs,  and  other  parts  of  language.  The  causes  of  this  are  not 
far  to  seek.  Spoken  language  can  never  be  so  accurate  as  writ- 
ten language  j  the  mass  of  the  English  and  Danes  never  cared 
or  could  care  much  for  grammar ;  and  both  parties  to  a  conver- 
sation would  of  course  hold  firmly  to  the  root  of  the  word, 
which  was  intelligible  to  both  of  them,  and  let  the  inflexions 
slide,  or  take  care  of  themselves.  The  more  the  English  and 
Danes  mixed  with  each  other,  the  oftener  they  met  at  church, 
at  games,  and  in  the  market-place,  the  more  rapidly  would  this 
process  of  stripping  go  on, — the  smaller  care  would  both  peoples 
take  of  the  grammatical  inflexions  which  they  had  brought  with 
them  into  this  country. 

15.  The  Latin  Element  in  English. — So  far  as  the  number  of 
words — the  vocabulary — of  the  language  is  concerned,  the  Latin 
contribution  is  by  far  the  most  important  element  in  our  lan- 
guage. Latin  was  the  language  of  the  Romans  ;  and  the  Romans 
at  one  time  were  masters  of  the  whole  known  world.  No  won- 
der, then,  that  they  influenced  so  many  peoples,  and  that  their 
language  found  its  way — east  and  west,  and  south  and  north — 
into  almost  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  There  are,  as  we  have 
seen,  more  Latin  than  English  words  in  our  own  language ;  and 
it  is  therefore  necessary  to  make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.     287 

character  and  the  uses  of  the  Latin  element — an  element  so 
important — in  English.1  Not  only  have  the  Eomans  made 
contributions  of  large  numbers  of  words  to  the  English  language, 
but  they  have  added  to  it  a  quite  new  quality,  and  given  to  its 
genius  new  powers  of  expression.  So  true  is  this,  that  we  may 
say — without  any  sense  of  unfairness,  or  any  feeling  of  exaggera- 
tion— that,  until  the  Latin  element  was  thoroughly  mixed,  united 
with,  and  transfused  into  the  original  English,  the  writings  of 
Shakespeare  were  impossible,  the  poetry  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  could  not  have  come  into  existence.  This 
is  true  of  Shakespeare ;  and  it  is  still  more  true  of  Milton.  His 
most  powerful  poetical  thoughts  are  written  in  lines,  the  most 
telling  words  in  which  are  almost  always  Latin.  This  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  lines  from  "  Lycidas  "  : — 

"  It  was  that  fatal  and  perfidious  bark, 
Built  in  the  eclipse,  and  rigged  with  curses  dark, 
That  sunk  so  low  that  sacred  head  of  thine  ! " 

16.  The  Latin  Contributions  and  their  Dates. — The  first 
contribution  of  Latin  words  was  made  by  the  Eomans — not, 
however,  to  the  English,  but  to  the  Britons.  The  Romans 
held  this  island  from  a.d.  43  to  a.d.  410.  They  left  behind 
them — when  they  were  obliged  to  go — a  small  contribution  of 
a  very  few  words,  but  all  of  them  important.  The  second 
contribution — to  a  large  extent  ecclesiastical — was  made  by 
Augustine  and  his  missionary  monks  from  Rome,  and  their  visit 
took  place  in  the  year  597.  The  third  contribution  was  made 
through  the  medium  of  the  Norman-Erench,  who  seized  and 
subdued  this  island  in  the  year  1068  and  following  years.  The 
fourth  contribution  came  to  us  by  the  aid  of  the  Revival  of 
Learning — rather  a  process  than  an  event,  the  dates  of  which 
are  vague,  but  which  may  be  said  to  have  taken  place  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  The  Latin  left  for  us 
by  the  Romans  is  called  Latin  of  the  First  Period;  that 
brought  over  by  the  missionaries  from  Rome,  Latin  of  the 

1  In  the  last  half  of  this  sentence,  all  the  essential  words— necessary,  ac- 
quainted, character,  uses,  element,  important,  are  Latin  (except  character, 
which  is  Greek). 


288  HISTORY    OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Second  Period ;  that  given  us  by  the  Norman-French,  Latin 
of  the  Third  Period ;  and  that  which  came  to  us  from  the 
Revival  of  Learning,  Latin  of  the  Fourth  Period.  The  first 
consists  of  a  few  names  handed  down  to  us  through  the  Britons ; 
the  second,  of  a  number  of  words — mostly  relating  to  ecclesias- 
tical affairs — brought  into  the  spoken  language  by  the  monks ; 
the  third,  of  a  large  vocabulary,  that  came  to  us  by  mouth  and 
ear ;  and  the  fourth,  of  a  very  large  treasure  of  words,  which  we 
received  by  means  of  books  and  the  eye.  Let  us  now  look 
more  closely  and  carefully  at  them,  each  in  its  turn. 

17.  Latin  of  the  First  Period. — (i)  The  Eomans  held  Bri- 
tain for  nearly  four  hundred  years;  and  they  succeeded  in 
teaching  the  wealthier  classes  among  the  Southern  Britons  to 
speak  Latin.  They  also  built  towns  in  the  island,  made  splen- 
did roads,  formed  camps  at  important  points,  framed  good  laws, 
and  administered  the  affairs  of  the  island  with  considerable 
justice  and  uprightness.  But,  never  having  come  directly  into 
contact  with  the  Angles  or  Saxons  themselves,  they  could  not 
in  any  way  influence  their  language  by  oral  communication — - 
by  speaking  to  them.  What  they  left  behind  them  was  only 
a  few  words,  most  of  which  became  merely  the  prefixes  or  the 
suffixes  of  the  names  of  places.  These  words  were  Castra, 
a  camp;  Strata  (via),  a  paved  road;  Colonia,  a  settlement 
(generally  of  soldiers);  Fossa,  a  trench;  Portus,  a  harbour; 
and  Vallum,  a  rampart. 

18.  Latin  of  the  First  Period  (ii). — (a)  The  treatment  of 
the  Latin  word  castra  in  this  island  has  been  both  singular  and 
significant.  It  has  existed  in  this  country  for  nearly  nineteen 
hundred  years  ;  and  it  has  always  taken  the  colouring  of  the 
locality  into  whose  soil  it  struck  root.  In  the  north  and 
east  of  England  it  is  sounded  hard,  and  takes  the  form  of 
caster,  as  in  Lancaster,  Doncaster,  Tadeaster,  and  others. 
In  the  midland  counties,  it  takes  the  softer  form  of  cester, 
as  in  Leicester,  Towcester ;  and  in  the  extreme  west  and 
south,  it  takes  the  still  softer  form  of  Chester,  as  in  Chester, 
Manchester,  "Winchester,  and  others.  It  is  worthy  of  notice 
that  there  are  in  Scotland  no  words  ending  in  caster.     Though 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  289 

the  Romans  had  camps  in  Scotland,  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  so  important  as  to  become  the  centres  of  towns.,  (b)  The 
word  strata  has  also  taken  different  forms  in  different  parts  of 
England.  While  castra  is  nearly  always  a  suffix,  strata 
shows  itself  constantly  as  a  prefix.  When  the  Romans  came  to 
this  island,  the  country  was  impassable  by  man.  There  were 
no  roads  worthy  of  the  name, — what  paths  there  were  being 
merely  foot-paths  or  bridle-tracks.  One  of  the  first  things  the 
Romans  did  was  to  drive  a  strongly  built  military  road  from 
Richborough,  near  Dover,  to  the  river  Dee,  on  which  they 
formed  a  standing  camp  (Castra  stativa)  which  to  this  day 
bears  the  name  of  Chester.  This  great  road  became  the  high- 
way of  all  travellers  from  north  to  south,  —  was  known  as 
"  The  Street,"  and  was  called  by  the  Saxons  Watling  Street. 
But  tins  word  street  also  became  a  much-used  prefix,  and  took 
the  different  forms  of  strat,  strad,  stret,  and  streat.  All 
towns  with  such  names  are  to  be  found  on  this  or  some  other 
great  Roman  road.  Thus  we  have  Stratford-on-Avon,  Strat- 
ton,  Stradbroke,  Stretton,  Stretford  (near  Manchester),  and 
Streatham  (near  London). — Over  the  other  words  we  need  not 
dwell  so  long.  Colonia  we  find  in  Colne,  Lincoln,  and  others; 
fossa  in  Fossway,  Posbrooke,  and  Fosbridge  ;  portus,  in 
Portsmouth  and  Bridport;  and  vallum  in  the  words  wall, 
bailey,  and  bailiff.  The  Normans  called  the  two  courts  in 
front  of  their  castles  the  inner  and  outer  baileys  ;  and  the  officer 
in  charge  of  them  was  called  the  bailiff. 

19.  Latin  Element  of  the  Second  Period  (i). — The  story  of 
Pope  Gregory  and  the  Roman  mission  to  England  is  widely 
known.  Gregory,  when  a  young  man,  was  crossing  the  Roman 
forum  one  morning,  and,  when  passing  the  side  where  the 
slave-mart  was  held,  observed,  as  he  walked,  some  beautiful 
boys,  with  fair  hair,  blue  eyes,  and  clear  bright  complexion. 
He  asked  a  bystander  of  what  nation  the  boys  were.  The 
answer  was,  that  they  were  Angles.  "No,  not  Angles,"  he 
replied ;  "  they  are  angels."  On  learning  further  that  they 
were  heathens,  he  registered  a  silent  vow  that  he  would,  if 
Providence  gave  him  an  opportunity,  deliver  them  from  the 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

darkness  of  heathendom,  and  bring  them  and  their  relatives  into 
the  light  and  liberty  of  the  Gospel.  Time  passed  by  ;  and  in 
the  long  course  of  time  Gregory  became  Pope.  In  his  unlooked- 
for  greatness,  he  did  not  forget  his  vow.  In  the  year  597  he 
sent  over  to  Kent  a  missionary,  called  Augustine,  along  with 
forty  monks.  They  were  well  received  by  the  King  of  Kent, 
allowed  to  settle  in  Canterbury,  and  to  build  a  small  cathedral 
there. 

20.  Latin  Element  of  the  Second  Period  (ii). — This  mission, 
the  churches  that  grew  out  of  it,  the  Christian  customs  that  in 
time  took  root  in  the  country,  and  the  trade  that  followed  in  its 
track,  brought  into  the  language  a  number  of  Latin  words,  most 
of  them  the  names  of  church  offices,  services,  and  observances. 
Thus  we  find,  in  our  oldest  English,  the  words,  postol  from 
apostolus,  a  person  sent;  biscop,  from  episcopus,  an  overseer; 
cale,  from  calix,  a  cup ;  clerc,  from  clericus,  an  ordained 
member  of  the  church ;  munee,  from  mon&chus,  a  solitary 
person  or  monk ;  preost,  from  presbyter,  an  elder ;  aelmesse, 
from  eleemosune,  alms ;  predician,  from  prcedicare,  to  preach ; 
regol,  from  regula,  a  rule.  {Apostle,  bishop,  clerk,  monk,  priest, 
and  alms  come  to  us  really  from  Greek  words — but  through 
the  Latin  tongue.) 

21.  Latin  Element  of  the  Second  Period  (iii). — The  intro- 
duction of  the  Roman  form  ,of  Christianity  brought  with  it 
increased  communication  with  Rome  and  with  the  Continent 
generally ;  widened  the  experience  of  Englishmen ;  gave  a 
stimulus  to  commerce ;  and  introduced  into  this  island  new 
things  and  products,  and  along  with  the  things  and  products 
new  names.  To  this  period  belongs  the  introduction  of  the 
words  :  Butter,  cheese ;  cedar,  fig,  pear,  peach ;  lettuce, 
lily ;  pepper,  pease ;  camel,  lion,  elephant ;  oyster,  trout ; 
pound,  ounce  ;    candle,  table ;    marble  ;    mint. 

22.  Latin  of  the  Third  Period  (i). — The  Latin  element  of 
the  Third  Period  is  in  reality  the  French  that  was  brought 
over  to  this  island  by  the  Normans  in  1066,  and  is  generally 
called  Norman-French.  It  differed  from  the  French  of  Paris 
both  in  spelling  and  in  pronunciation.     For  example,  Norman- 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE.  291 

French  wrote  people  for  peuple;  leal  for  loyal;  real  for 
royal;  realm  for  royaume;  and  so  on.  But  both  of  these 
dialects  (and  every  dialect  of  French)  are  simply  forms  of  Latin 
— not  of  the  Latin  written  and  printed  in  books,  but  of  the 
Latin  spoken  in  the  camp,  the  fields,  the  streets,  the  village,  and 
the  cottage.  The  Romans  conquered  Gaul,  where  a  Keltic 
tongue  was  spoken ;  and  the  Gauls  gradually  adopted  Latin  as 
their  mother  tongue,  and — with  the  exception  of  the  Bretons 
of  Brittany — left  off  their  Keltic  speech  almost  entirely.  In 
adopting  the  Latin  tongue,  they  had — as  in  similar  cases — taken 
firm  hold  of  the  root  of  the  word,  but  changed  the  pronunciation 
of  it,  and  had,  at  the  same  time,  compressed  very  much  or  entirely 
dropped  many  of  the  Latin  inflexions.  The  French  people,  an 
intermixture  of  Gauls  and  other  tribes  (some  of  them,  like  the 
Franks,  German),  ceased,  in  fact,  to  speak  their  own  language, 
and  learned  the  Latin  tongue.  The  Norsemen,  led  by  Duke 
Rolf  or  Rollo  or  Rou,  marched  south  in  large  numbers ;  and, 
in  the  year  912,  wrested  from  King  Charles  the  Simple  the  fail 
valley  of  the  Seine,  settled  in  it,  and  gave  to  it  the  name  of 
Normandy.  These  Norsemen,  now  Normans,  were  Teutons,  and 
spoke  a  Teutonic  dialect ;  but,  when  they  settled  in  France, 
they  learned  in  course  of  time  to  speak  French.  The  kind  of 
French  they  spoke  is  called  Norman-French,  and  it  was  this 
kind  of  French  that  they  brought  over  with  them  in  1066. 
But  Norman-French  had  made  its  appearance  in  England  before 
the  famous  year  of  '66 ;  for  Edward  the  Confessor,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  English  throne  in  1042,  had  been  educated  at  the 
Norman  Court ;  and  he  not  only  spoke  the  language  himself,  but 
insisted  on  its  being  spoken  by  the  nobles  who  lived  with  him 
in  his  Court. 

23.  Latin  of  the  Third  Period  (ii).  Chief  Dates. — The  Nor- 
mans, having  utterly  beaten  down  the  resistance  of  the  English, 
seized  the  land  and  all  the  political  power  of  this  country,  and 
filled  all  kinds  of  offices — both  spiritual  and  temporal — with 
their  Norman  brethren.  Norman-French  became  the  language  of 
the  Court  and  the  nobility,  the  language  of  Parliament  and  the 
law  courts,  of  the  universities  and  the  schools,  of  the  Church 


292  HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

and  of  literature.  The  English  people  held  fast  to  their  own 
tongue ;  but  they  picked  up  many  French  words  in  the  markets 
and  other  places  "where  men  most  do  congregate."  But 
French,  being  the  language  of  the  upper  and  ruling  classes,  was 
here  and  there  learned  by  the  English  or  Saxon  country-people 
who  had  the  ambition  to  be  in  the  fashion,  and  were  eager  "  to 
speke  Frensch,  for  to  be  more  y-told  of," — to  be  more  highly 
considered  than  their  neighbours.  It  took  about  three  hundred 
years  for  French  words  and  phrases  to  soak  thoroughly  into 
English;  and  it  was  not  until  England  was  saturated  with 
French  words  and  French  rhythms  that  the  great  poet  Chaucer 
appeared  to  produce  poetic  narratives  that  were  read  with 
delight  both  by  Norman  baron  and  by  Saxon  yeoman.  In  the 
course  of  these  three  hundred  years  this  intermixture  of  French 
with  English  had  been  slowly  and  silently  going  on.  Let  us 
look  at  a  few  of  the  chief  land-marks  in  the  long  process.  In 
1042  Edward  the  Confessor  introduces  Norman-French  into  his 
Court.  In  1066  Duke  William  introduces  Norman-Fiench  into 
the  whole  country,  and  even  into  parts  of  Scotland.  The  oldest 
English,  or  Anglo-Saxon,  ceases  to  be  written,  anywhere  in  the 
island,  in  public  documents,  in  the  year  1154.  In  1204  we 
lost  Normandy,  a  loss  that  had  the  effect  of  bringing  the  Eng- 
lish and  the  Normans  closer  together.  Eobert  of  Gloucester 
writes  his  chronicle  in  1272,  and  uses  a  large  number  of  French 
words.  But,  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Third,  in  the 
year  1258,  the  reformed  and  reforming  Government  of  the  day 
issued  a  proclamation  in  English,  as  well  as  in  French  and  Latin. 
In  1303,  Eobert  of  Brunn  introduces  a  large  number  of  French 
words.  The  French  wars  in  Edward  the  Third's  reign  brought 
about  a  still  closer  union  of  the  Norman  and  the  Saxon  elements 
of  the  nation.  But,  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century 
a  reaction  set  in,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  genius  of  the  English 
language  refused  to  take  in  any  more  French  words.  The 
English  silent  stubbornness  seemed  to  have  prevailed,  and 
Englishmen  had  made  up  their  minds  to  be  English  in  speech, 
as  they  were  English  to  the  backbone  in  everything  else. 
Norman-French  had,  in  fact,  become  provincial,  and  was  spoken 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  293 

only  here  and  there.  Before  the  great  Plague  —  commonly 
spoken  of  as  "The  Black  Death"— of  1349,  both  high  and 
low  seemed  to  be  alike  bent  on  learning  French,  but  the  reaction 
may  be  said  to  date  from  this  year.  The  culminating  point  of 
this  reaction  may  perhaps  be  seen  in  an  Act  of  Parliament  passed 
in  1362  by  Edward  III.,  by  which  both  French  and  Latin 
had  to  give  place  to  English  in  our  courts  of  law.  The  poems 
of  Chaucer  are  the  literary  result — "the  bright  consummate 
flower  "  of  the  union  of  two  great  powers — the  brilliance  of  the 
French  language  on  the  one  hand  and  the  homely  truth  and 
steadfastness  of  English  on  the  other.  Chaucer  was  born  c. 
1340,  and  died  in  1400;  so  that  we  may  say  that  he  and  his 
poems — though  not  the  causes — are  the  signs  and  symbols  of 
the  great  influence  that  French  obtained  and  held  over  our 
mother  tongue.  But  although  we  accepted  so  many  words  from 
our  Norman-French  visitors  and  immigrants,  we  accepted  from 
them  no  habit  of  speech  whatever.  We  accepted  from  them  no 
phrase  or  idiom  :  the  build  and  nature  of  the  English  language 
remained  the  same — unaffected  by  foreign  manners  or  by  foreign 
habits.  It  is  true  that  Chaucer  has  the  ridiculous  phrase,  "  I 
n'ara  but  dead"  (  =  no  better  than,  i.e.  almost,  dead) — where 
ne-but  is  nearly  an  exact  parallel  of  the  French  ne-que.  But, 
though  our  tongue  has  always  been  and  is  impervious  to 
foreign  idiom,  it  is  probably  owing  to  the  great  influx  of  French 
words  which  took  place  chiefly  in  the  thirteenth  century  that  many 
people  have  acquired  a  habit  of  using  a  long  French  or  Latin 
word  when  an  English  word  would  do  quite  as  well — or,  indeed, 
a  great  deal  better.  Thus  some  people  are  found  to  call  a  good 
house,  a  desirable  mansion;  and,  instead  of  the  quiet  old  English 
proverb,  "  Buy  once,  buy  twice,"  we  have  the  roundabout  Latin- 
isms,  "A  single  commission  will  ensure  a  repetition  of  orders." 
An  American  writer,  speaking  of  the  foreign  ambassadors  who 
had  been  attacked  by  Japanese  soldiers  in  Yeddo,  says  that 
"  they  concluded  to  occupy  a  location  more  salubrious."  This  is 
only  a  foreign  language,  instead  of  the  simple  and  homely  Eng- 
lish :  "  They  made  up  their  minds  to  settle  in  a  healthier  spot." 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

24.  Latin  of  the  Third  Period  (iii).  Norman  Words  (a). — 
The  Norman-French  words  were  of  several  different  kinds. 
There  were  words  connected  with  war,  with  feudalism,  and 
with  the  chase.  There  were  new  law  terms,  and  words  con- 
nected with  the  State,  and  the  new  institutions  introduced  by 
the  Normans.  There  were  new  words  brought  in  by  the  Nor- 
man churchmen.  New  titles  unknown  to  the  English  were 
also  introduced.  A  better  kind  of  cooking,  a  higher  and  less 
homely  style  of  living,  was  brought  into  this  country  by  the 
Normans  \  and,  along  with  these,  new  and  unheard-of  words. 

25.  Norman  Words  (b). — The  following  are  some  of  the 
Norman  -  French  terms  connected  with  war  :  Arms,  armour ; 
assault,  battle;  captain,  chivalry;  joust,  lance;  standard, 
trumpet ;  mail,  vizor.  The  English  word  for  armour  was 
harness ;  but  the  Normans  degraded  that  word  into  the  armour 
of  a  horse.  Battle  comes  from  the  Fr.  battre,  to  beat :  the 
corresponding  English  word  is  fight.  Captain  comes  from 
the  Latin  caput,  a  head.  Mail  comes  from  the  Latin  macula, 
the  mesh  of  a  net ;  and  the  first  coats  of  mail  were  made  of  rings 
or  a  kind  of  metal  network.  Vizor  comes  from  the  Fr.  viser, 
to  look.  It  was  the  barred  part  of  the  helmet  which  a  man 
could  see  through. 

26.  Norman  Words  (c). — Feudalism  may  be  described  as  the 
holding  of  land  on  condition  of  giving  or  providing  service  in 
war.  Thus  a  knight  held  land  of  his  baron,  under  promise  to 
serve  him  so  many  days ;  a  baron  of  his  king,  on  condition 
that  he  brought  so  many  men  into  the  field  for  such  and  such 
a  time  at  the  call  of  his  Overlord.  William  the  Conqueror 
made  the  feudal  system  universal  in  every  part  of  England, 
and  compelled  every  English  baron  to  swear  homage  to  him- 
self personally.  Words  relating  to  feudalism  are,  among 
others  :  Homage,  fealty ;  esquire,  vassal ;  herald,  scutch- 
eon, and  others.  Homage  is  the  declaration  oi  obedience  for 
life  of  one  man  to  another — that  the  inferior  is  the  man  (Fr 
homme  ;  L.  homo)  of  the  superior.  Fealty  is  the  Norman-French 
form  of  the  word  fidelity.  An  esquire  is  a  scutiger  (L.),  or 
shield-bearer;   for  he  carried  the  shield  of  the  knight,  when 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  295 

they  were  travelling  and  no  fighting  was  going  on.  A  vassal 
was  a  "  little  young  man," — in  Low-Latin  vassallus,  a  diminu- 
tive of  vassus,  from  the  Keltic  word  gwds,  a  man.  (The  form 
vassaletus  is  also  found,  which  gives  us  our  varlet  and  valet.) 
Scutcheon  comes  from  the  Lat.  scutum,  a  shield.  Then  scut- 
cheon or  escutcheon  came  to  mean  coat-of-arms — or  the  marks 
and  signs  on  his  shield  by  which  the  name  and  family  of  a  man 
were  known,  when  he  himself  was  covered  from  head  to  foot  in 
iron  mail. 

27.  Norman  Words  (d). — The  terms  connected  with  the 
chase  are :  Brace,  couple ;  chase,  course ;  covert,  copse, 
forest;  leveret,  mews;  quarry,  venison.  A  few  remarks 
about  some  of  these  may  be  interesting.  Brace  comes  from 
the  Old  French  brace,  an  arm  (Mod.  French  bras);  from  the 
Latin  brachium.  The  root-idea  seems  to  be  that  which  encloses 
or  holds  up.  Thus  bracing  air  is  that  which  strings  up  the 
nerves  and  muscles;  and  a  brace  of  birds  was  two  birds  tied 
together  with  a  string. — The  word  forest  contains  in  itself 
a  good  deal  of  unwritten  Norman  history.  It  comes  from  the 
Latin  adverb  foras,  out  of  doors.  Hence,  in  Italy,  a  stranger  or 
foreigner  is  still  called  a  forestiere.  A  forest  in  Norman-French 
was  not  necessarily  a  breadth  of  land  covered  with  trees ;  it 
was  simply  land  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  common  law. 
Hence,  when  William  the  Conqueror  created  the  New  Forest, 
he  merely  took  the  land  out  of  the  rule  and  charge  of  the  com- 
mon law,  and  put  it  under  his  own  regal  power  and  personal 
care.  In  land  of  this  kind — much  of  which  was  kept  for  hunt- 
ing in — trees  were  afterwards  planted,  partly  to  shelter  large 
game,  and  partly  to  employ  ground  otherwise  useless  in  growing 
timber. — Mews  is  a  very  odd  word.  It  comes  from  the  Latin 
verb  mutare,  to  change.  When  the  falcons  employed  in  hunting 
were  changing  their  feathers,  or  moulting  (the  word  moult  is  the 
same  as  mews  in  a  different  dress),  the  French  shut  them  in 
a  cage,  which  they  called  mue — from  mutare.  Then  the  stables 
for  horses  were  put  in  the  same  place;  and  hence  a  row  of 
stables  has  come  to  be  called  a  mews. — Quarry  is  quite  as 
strange.     The  word   quarry,  which    means   a  mine  of   stones, 


296  HISTORY   OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

comes  from  the  Latin  quadrdre,  to  make  square.  But  the 
hunting  term  quarry  is  of  a  quite  different  origin.  That  comes 
from  the  Latin  corium  (the  hide),  which  the  Old  French  altered 
into  curee.  When  a  wild  beast  was  run  down  and  killed,  the 
heart  and  entrails,  wrapped  up  in  the  hide,  were  thrown  to  the 
dogs  as  their  share  of  the  hunt. — The  word  venison  comes  to 
us,  through  French,  from  the  Lat.  vendri,  to  hunt ;  and  hence  it 
means  hunted  flesh.  The  same  word  gives  us  venery — the  term 
that  was  used  in  the  fourteenth  century,  by  Chaucer  among 
others,  for  hunting. 

28.  Norman  Words  (e). — The  Normans  introduced  into  Eng- 
land their  own  system  of  law,  their  own  law  officers ;  and  hence, 
into  the  English  language,  came  Norman-French  law  terms. 
The  following  are  a  few  :  Assize,  attorney  ;  chancellor,  court; 
judge,  justice;  plaintiff,  sue;  summons,  trespass.  A  few 
remarks  about  some  of  these  may  be  useful.  The  chancellor 
(cancellarius)  was  the  legal  authority  who  sat  behind  lattice- 
work, which  was  called  in  Latin  cancelli.  This  word  means, 
primarily,  little  crabs;  and  it  is  a  diminutive  from  cancer,  a 
crab.  It  was  so  called  because  the  lattice-work  looked  like 
crabs'  claws  crossed.  Our  word  cancel  comes  from  the  same 
root :  it  means  to  make  cross  lines  through  anything  we  wish 
deleted. — Court  comes  from  the  Latin  cors  or  cohors,  a  sheep- 
pen.  It  afterwards  came  to  mean  an  enclosure,  and  also  a 
body  of  Eoman  soldiers. — The  proper  English  word  for  &  judge 
is  deemster  or  demster  (which  appears  as  the  proper  name 
Dempster);  and  this  is  still  the  name  for  a  judge  in  the  Isle 
of  Man.  The  French  word  comes  from  the  Latin  words,  dico, 
I  point  out,  and  jus,  right.  The  word  jus  is  seen  in  the 
other  French  term  which  we  have  received  from  the  Normans 
— justice. — Sue  comes  from  the  Old  Fr.  suir,  which  appears  in 
Modern  Fr.  as  suivre.  It  is  derived  from  the  Lat.  word  sequor, 
I  follow  (which  gives  our  sequel) ;  and  we  have  compounds  of  it 
in  ensue,  issue,  and  pursue. — The  tres  in  trespass  is  a  French 
form  of  the  Latin  trans,  beyond  or  across.  Trespass,  therefore, 
means  to  cross  the  bounds  of  right. 

29.  Norman  Words  (/). — Some  of  the  church  terms  intro- 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  297 

duced  by  the  Norman-French  are :  Altar,  Bible ;  baptism, 
ceremony ;  friar ;  tonsure ;  penance,  relic. — The  Normans 
gave  us  the  words  title  and  dignity  themselves,  and  also 
the  following  titles :  Duke,  marquis ;  count,  viscount ; 
peer;  mayor,  and  others.  A  duke  is  a  leader ;  from  the 
Latin  dux  (=duc-s).  A  marquis  is  a  lord  who  has  to  ride 
the  marches  or  borders  between  one  county,  or  between  one 
country,  and  another.  A  marquis  was  also  called  a  Lord- 
Marcher.  The  word  count  never  took  root  in  this  island^ 
because  its  place  was  already  occupied  by  the  Danish  name 
earl ;  but  we  preserve  it  in  the  names  countess  and  viscount 
— the  latter  of  which  means  a  person  in  the  place  of  (L.  vice) 
a  count.  Peer  comes  from  the  Latin  par,  an  equal.  The 
House  of  Peers  is  the  House  of  Lords — that  is,  of  those  who 
are,  at  least  when  in  the  House,  equal  in  rank  and  equal  in 
power  of  voting.  It  is  a  fundamental  doctrine  in  English 
law  that  every  man  "  is  to  be  tried  by  his  peers" — It  is  worthy 
of  note  that,  in  general,  the  French  names  for  different  kinds 
of  food  designated  the  cooked  meats;  while  the  names  for 
the  living  animals  that  furnish  them  are  English.  Thus 
we  have  beef  and  ox ;  mutton  and  sheep ;  veal  and  calf ;  pork 
and  pig.  There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
'  Ivanhoe,'  which  illustrates  this  fact  with  great  force  and  pic- 
turesqueness : — 

"  *  Gurth,  I  advise  thee  to  call  off  Fangs,  and  leave  the  herd  to 
their  destiny,  which,  whether  they  meet  with  bands  of  travelling 
soldiers,  or  of  outlaws,  or  of  wandering  pilgrims,  can  be  little 
else  than  to  be  converted  into  Normans  before  morning,  to  thy 
no  small  ease  and  comfort. ' 

"  'The  swine  turned  Normans  to  my  comfort ! '  quoth  Gurth; 
'  expound  that  to  me,  Wamba,  for  my  brain  is  too  dull,  and  my 
mind  too  vexed,  to  read  riddles/ 

"  *  Why,  how  call  you  those  grunting  brutes  running  about  on 
their  four  legs  1 '  demanded  Wamba. 

" '  Swine,  fool,  swine,'  said  the  herd ;  ■  every  fool  knows 
that.' 

"  'And  swine  is  good  Saxon,'  said  the  jester;  'but  how  call 


298  HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

you  the  sow  when  she  is  flayed,  and  drawn,  and  quartered,  and 
hung  up  by  the  heels,  like  a  traitor  1 ' 

"  '  Pork,'  answered  the  swine-herd. 

"'lam  very  glad  every  fool  knows  that  too,'  said  Wamba ; 
'  and  pork,  I  think,  is  good  Norman-French :  and  so  when  the 
brute  lives,  and  is  in  the  charge  of  a  Saxon  slave,  she  goes  by 
her  Saxon  name ;  but  becomes  a  Norman,  and  is  called  pork, 
when  she  is  carried  to  the  castle-hall  to  feast  among  the  nobles ; 
what  dost  thou  think  of  this,  friend  Gurth,  ha  ? ' 

"  '  It  is  but  too  true  doctrine,  friend  Wamba,  however  it  got 
into  thy  fool's  pate.' 

" l  Nay,  I  can  tell  you  more,'  said  Wamba,  in  the  same  tone ; 
1  there  is  old  Alderman  Ox  continues  to  hold  his  Saxon  epithet, 
while  he  is  under  the  charge  of  serfs  and  bondsmen  such  as 
thou,  but  becomes  Beef,  a  fiery  French  gallant,  when  he  arrives 
before  the  worshipful  jaws  that  are  destined  to  consume  him. 
Myhneer  Calf,  too,  becomes  Monsieur  de  Veau  in  the  like  man- 
ner ;  he  is  Saxon  when  he  requires  tendance,  and  takes  a  Nor- 
man name  when  he  becomes  matter  of  enjoyment.' " 

30.  General  Character  of  the  Norman-French  Contributions. 
— The  Norman-French  contributions  to  our  language  gave  us 
a  number  of  general  names  or  class-names ;  while  the  names 
for  individual  things  are,  in  general,  of  purely  English  origin. 
The  words  animal  and  beast,  for  example,  are  French  (or 
Latin) ;  but  the  words  fox,  hound,  whale,  snake,  wasp,  and 
fly  are  purely  English. — The  words  family,  relation,  parent, 
ancestor,  are  French ;  but  the  names  father,  mother,  son, 
daughter,  gossip,  are  English. — The  words  title  and  dignity 
are  French;  but  the  words  king  and  queen,  lord  and  lady, 
knight  and  sheriff,  are  English. — Perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
instance  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  abstract  terms  employed 
for  the  offices  and  functions  of  State.  Of  these,  the  English 
language  possesses  only  one — the  word  kingdom.  Norman- 
French,  on  the  other  hand,  has  given  us  the  words  realm,  court, 
state,  constitution,  people,  treaty,  audience,  navy,  army, 
and  others — amounting  in  all  to  nearly  forty.  When,  how- 
ever, we  come  to  terms  denoting  labour  and  work — such  as  agri- 


VOCABULARY   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  299 

culture  and  seafaring,  we  find  the  proportions  entirely  reversed. 
The  English  language,  in  such  cases,  contributes  almost  every- 
thing ;  the  French  nearly  nothing.  In  agriculture,  while  plough, 
rake,  harrow,  and  very  many  others  are  English  words,  not  a 
single  term  for  an  agricultural  process  or  implement  has  been 
given  us  by  the  warlike  Norman -French. — While  the  words 
ship  and  boat;  hull  and  fleet;  oar  and  sail,  are  all  English, 
the  Normans  have  presented  us  with  only  the  single  word 
prow.  It  is  as  if  all  the  Norman  conqueror  had  to  do  was  to 
take  his  stand  at  the  prow,  gazing  upon  the  land  he  was  going 
to  seize,  while  the  Low-German  sailors  worked  for  him  at  oar  and 
sail. — Again,  while  the  names  of  the  various  parts  of  the  body 
— eye,  nose,  cheek,  tongue,  hand,  foot,  and  more  than  eighty 
others — are  all  English,  we  have  received  only  about  ten  similar 
words  from  the  French — such  as  spirit  and  corpse ;  perspira- 
tion ;  face  and  stature.  Speaking  broadly,  we  may  say  that  all 
words  that  express  general  notions,  or  generalisations,  are 
French  or  Latin ;  while  words  that  express  specific  actions  or 
concrete  existences  are  pure  English.  Mr  Spalding  observes — 
"  We  use  a  foreign  term  naturalised  when  we  speak  of  '  colour ' 
universally ;  but  we  fall  back  on  our  home  stores  if  we  have  to 
tell  what  the  colour  is,  calling  it  '  red '  or  '  yellow,'  '  white '  or 
*  black,'  '  green  '  or  '  brown.'  We  are  Romans  when  we  speak 
in  a  general  way  of  '  moving ' ;  but  we  are  Teutons  if  we  ■  leap  ' 
or  '  spring,'  if  we  *  slip,'  '  slide,'  or  *  fall,'  if  we  '  walk,'  *  run,' 
f  swim,'  or  '  ride,'  if  we  '  creep  '  or  '  crawl '  or  '  fly.'  " 

31.  Gains  to  English  from  Norman-French. — The  gains  from 
the  Norman-French  contribution  are  large,  and  are  also  of  very 
great  importance.  Mr  Lowell  says,  that  the  Norman  element 
came  in  as  quickening  leaven  to  the  rather  heavy  and  lumpy 
Saxon  dough.  It  stirred  the  whole  mass,  gave  new  life  to 
the  language,  a  much  higher  and  wider  scope  to  the  thoughts, 
much  greater  power  and  copiousness  to  the  expression  of  our 
thoughts,  and  a  finer  and  brighter  rhythm  to  our  English 
sentences.  "  To  Chaucer,"  he  says,  in  '  My  Study  Windows,' 
"  French  must  have  been  almost  as  truly  a  mother  tongue  as 
English.     In  him  we  see  the  first  result  of  the  Norman  yeast 


300  HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

upon  the  home-baked  Saxon  loaf.  The  flour  had  been  honest, 
the  paste  well  kneaded,  but  the  inspiring  leaven  was  wanting 
till  the  Norman  brought  it  over.  Chaucer  works  still  in  the 
solid  material  of  his  race,  but  with  what  airy  lightness  has  he 
not  infused  it  1  Without  ceasing  to  be  English,  he  has  escaped 
from  being  insular."  Let  us  look  at  some  of  these  gains  a  little 
more  in  detail. 

32.  Norman -French  Synonyms. — We  must  not  consider  a 
synonym  as  a  word  that  means  exactly  the  same  thing  as  the 
word  of  which  it  is  a  synonym  j  because  then  there  would  be 
neither  room  nor  use  for  such  a  word  in  the  language.  A 
synonym  is  a  word  of  the  same  meaning  as  another,  but  with 
a  slightly  different  shade  of  meaning,  —  or  it  is  used  under 
different  circumstances  and  in  a  different  connection,  or  it  puts 
the  same  idea  under  a  new  angle.  Begin  and  commence,  will 
and  testament,  are  exact  equivalents — are  complete  synonyms, 
but  there  are  very  few  more  of  this  kind  in  our  language.  The 
moment  the  genius  of  a  language  gets  hold  of  two  words  of  the 
same  meaning,  it  sets  them  to  do  different  kinds  of  work, — to 
express  different  parts  or  shades  of  that  meaning.  Thus  limb 
and  member,  luck  and  fortune,  have  the  same  meaning ; 
but  we  cannot  speak  of  a  limb  of  the  Royal  Society,  or  of 
the  luck  of  the  Rothschilds,  who  made  their  fortune  by  hard 
work  and  steady  attention  to  business.  We  have,  by  the  aid  of 
the  Norman-French  contributions,  flower  as  well  as  bloom; 
branch  and  bough ;  purchase  and  buy ;  amiable  and 
friendly ;  cordial  and  hearty ;  country  and  land ;  gentle 
and  mild  ;  desire  and  wish  ;  labour  and  work  ;  miserable  and 
wretched.  These  pairs  of  words  enable  poets  and  other  writers 
to  use  the  right  word  in  the  right  place.  And  we,  preferring 
our  Saxon  or  good  old  English  words  to  any  French  or  Latin 
importations,  prefer  to  speak  of  a  hearty  welcome  instead 
of  a  cordial  reception ;  of  a  loving  wife  instead  of  an  ami- 
able consort ;  of  a  wretched  man  instead  of  a  miserable 
individual. 

33.  Bilingualism. — How  did  these  Norman -French  words 
find  their  way  into  the  language  %     What  was  the  road  by  which 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  301 

they  came  1  What  was  the  process  that  enabled  them  to  find  a 
place  in  and  to  strike  deep  root  into  our  English  soil  1  Did  the 
learned  men — the  monks  and  the  clergy — make  a  selection  of 
words,  write  them  in  their  books,  and  teach  them  to  the  English 
people  1  Nothing  of  the  sort.  The  process  was  a  much  ruder 
one — but  at  the  same  time  one  much  more  practical,  more  effec- 
tual, and  more  lasting  in  its  results.  The  two  peoples — the 
Normans  and  the  English — found  that  they  had  to  live  together. 
They  met  at  church,  in  the  market-place,  in  the  drilling  field,  at 
the  archery  butts,  in  the  courtyards  of  castles ;  and,  on  the 
battle-fields  of  France,  the  Saxon  bowman  showed  that  he  could 
fight  as  well,  as  bravely,  and  even  to  better  purpose  than  his  lord 
— the  Norman  baron.  At  all  these  places,  under  all  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  Norman  and  the  Englishman  were  obliged  to 
speak  with  each  other.  Now  arose  a  striking  phenomenon. 
Every  man,  as  Professor  Earle  puts  it,  turned  himself  as  it  were 
into  a  walking  phrase-book  or  dictionary.  When  a  Norman  had 
to  use  a  French  word,  he  tried  to  put  the  English  word  for  it 
alongside  of  the  French  word  ;  when  an  Englishman  used  an 
English  word,  he  joined  with  it  the  French  equivalent.  Then 
the  language  soon  began  to  swarm  with  "  yokes  of  words  " ;  oui 
words  went  in  couples ;  and  the  habit  then  begun  has  continued 
down  even  to  the  present  day.  And  thus  it  is  that  we  possess 
such  couples  as  -will  and  testament ;  act  and  deed  ;  use  and 
-wont ;  aid  and  abet.  Chaucer's  poems  are  full  of  these  pairs. 
He  joins  together  hunting  and  venery  (though  both  words 
mean  exactly  the  same  thing) ;  nature  and  kind ;  cheere  and 
face  ;  pray  and  beseech ;  mirth  and  jollity.  Later  on,  the 
Prayer-Book,  which  was  written  in  the  years  1540  to  1559, 
keeps  up  the  habit :  and  we  find  the  pairs  acknowledge  and 
confess ;  assemble  and  meet  together ;  dissemble  and 
cloak ;  humble  and  lowly.  To  the  more  English  part  of  the 
congregation  the  simple  Saxon  words  would  come  home  with 
kindly  association  ;  to  others,  the  words  confess,  assemble,  dis- 
semble, and  humble  would  speak  with  greater  force  and  clearness. 
— Such  is  the  phenomenon  called  by  Professor  Earle  bilingual- 
ism     "It  is,  in  fact,"  he  says,  "a  putting  of  colloquial  for- 


302  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

mulse  to  do  the  duty  of  a  French-English  and  English-French 
vocabulary."  Even  Hooker,  who  wrote  at  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  seems  to  have  been  obliged  to  use  these  pairs ; 
and  we  find  in  his  writings  the  couples  "  cecity  and  blindness," 
"nocive  and  hurtful,"  "sense  and  meaning." 

34.  Losses  of  English  from  the  Incoming  of  Norman-French. 
— (i)  Before  the  coming  of  the  Normans,  the  English  language 
was  in  the  habit  of  forming  compounds  with  ease  and  effect. 
Eut,  after  the  introduction  of  the  Norman-French  language,  that 
power  seems  gradually  to  have  disappeared ;  and  ready-made 
French  or  Latin  words  usurped  the  place  of  the  home-grown 
English  compound.  *Thus  despair  pushed  out  wanhope ; 
suspicion  dethroned  wantrust ;  bidding  -  sale  was  expelled 
by  auction ;  learning-knight  by  disciple ;  rime-craft  by  the 
Greek  word  arithmetic ;  gold-hoard  by  treasure ;  book-hoard 
by  library  ;  earth  -  tilth  by  agriculture  ;  wonstead  by 
residence;  and  so  with  a  large  number  of  others. — Many 
English  words,  moreover,  had  their  meanings  depreciated  and 
almost  degraded;  and  the  words  themselves  lost  their  ancient 
rank  and  dignity.  Thus  the  Norman  conquerors  put  their 
foot — literally  and  metaphorically — on  the  Saxon  chair,1  which 
thus  became  a  stool,  or  a  footstool.  Thatch,  which  is  a 
doublet  of  the  word  deck,  was  the  name  for  any  kind  of  roof ; 
but  the  coming  of  the  Norman-French  lowered  it  to  indicate  a 
roof  of  straw.  "Whine  was  used  for  the  weeping  or  crying  of 
human  beings ;  but  it  is  now  restricted  to  the  cry  of  a  dog. 
Hide  was  the  generic  term  for  the  skin  of  any  animal ;  it  is 
now  limited  in  modern  English  to  the  skin  of  a  beast. — The 
most  damaging  result  upon  our  language  was  that  it  entirely 
stopped  the  growth  of  English  words.  We  could,  for 
example,  make  out  of  the  word  burn — the  derivatives  brunt, 
brand,  brandy,  brown,  brimstone,  and  others ;  but  this 
power  died  out  with  the  coming  in  of  the  Norman -French 
language.     After  that,  instead  of  growing  our  own  words,  we 

1  Chair  is  the  Norman-French  form  of  the  French  chaise.  The  Germans 
still  call  a  chair  a  stuhl;  and  among  the  English,  stool  was  the  universal  name 
till  the  twelfth  century. 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.     303 

adopted  them  ready-made. — Professor  Craik  compares  the 
English  and  Latin  languages  to  two  banks;  and  says  that, 
when  the  Normans  came  over,  the  account  at  the  English  bank 
was  closed,  arid  we  drew  only  upon  the  Latin  bank.  But  the 
case  is  worse  than  this.  English  lost  its  power  of  growth  and 
expansion  from  the  centre ;  from  this  time,  it  could  only  add 
to  its  bulk  by  borrowing  and  conveying  from  without — by  the 
external  accretion  of  foreign  words. 

35.  Losses  of  English  from  the  Incoming  of  Norman-French. 
— (ii)  The  arrestment  of  growth  in  the  purely  English  part  of 
our  language,  owing  to  the  irruption  of  Norman-Erench,  and 
also  to  the  ease  with  which  we  could  take  a  ready-made  word 
from  Latin  or  from  Greek,  killed  off  an  old  power  which  we 
once  possessed,  and  which  was  not  without  its  own  use  and 
expressiveness.  This  was  the  power  of  making  compound 
words.  The  Greeks  in  ancient  times  had,  and  the  Germans 
in  modern  times  have,  this  power  in  a  high  degree.  Thus  a 
Greek  comic  poet  has  a  word  of  fourteen  syllables,  which  may 
be  thus  translated — 

"  Meanly-rising-early-and-hurrying-to-the-tribunal-to-clenounce-another- 
for-an-infraction-of-the-law-concerning-the-exportation-of-figs."1 

And  the  Germans  have  a  compound  like  "  the-all-to-nothing- 
crushing  philosopher."  The  Germans  also  say  iron-path  for  rail- 
way, handshoe  for  glove,  and  finger-hat  for  thimble.  We  also 
possessed  this  power  at  one  time,  and  employed  it  both  in 
proper  and  in  common  names.  Thus  we  had  and  have  the 
names  Brakespear,  Shakestaff,  Shakespear,  Golightly,  Dolittle, 
Standfast ;  and  the  common  nouns  want-wit,  find-fault,  mumble- 
news  (for  tale-bearer),  pinch-penny  (for  miser),  slugabed.  In 
older  times  we  had  three-foot-stool,  three-man-beetle2 ;  stone- 
cold,  heaven-h'ight,  honey-sweet,  snail-slow,  nut-brown,  lily-livered 
(for  cowardly) ;  brand-fire-neio ;  earth-icandering,  wind-dried, 
thunder-blasted,  death-doomed,  and  many  others.  But  such 
words  as  forbears  or  fore-elders  have  been  pushed  out  by  ances- 

1  In  two  words,  a  Jig  shower  or  sycophant. 

2  A  club  for  beating  clothes,  that  could  be  handled  only  by  three  men. 


304  HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH  .LANGUAGE. 

tors  ;  forewit  by  caution  or  prudence  ;  and  inwit  by  conscience. 
Mr.  Barnes,  the  Dorsetshire  poet,  much  wanted  to  see  these  and 
similar  compounds  restored,  and  thought  that  we  might  well 
return  to  the  old  clear  well-springs  of  "English  undefiled," 
and  make  our  own  compounds  out  of  our  own  words.  He 
even  carried  his  desires  into  the  region  of  English  grammar, 
and,  for  degrees  of  comparison,  proposed  the  phrase  pitches  of 
suchness.  Thus,  instead  of  the  Latin  word  omnibus,  he  would 
have  folk-wain;  for  the  Greek  botany,  he  would  substitute 
wort-lore;  for  auction,  he  would  give  us  bode-sale ;  globule  he 
would  replace  with  ballkin  ;  the  Greek  word  horizon  must  give 
way  to  the  pure  English  sky-edge;  and,  instead  of  quadrangle, 
he  would  have  us  all  write  and  say  four-winkle. 

36.  Losses  of  English  from  the  Incoming  of  Norman- 
French. — (iii)  When  once  a  way  was  made  for  the  entrance  of 
French  words  into  our  English  language,  the  immigrations  were 
rapid  and  numerous.  Hence  there  were  many  changes  both 
in  the  grammar  and  in  the  vocabulary  of  English  from  the 
year  1100,  the  year  in  which  we  may  suppose  those  English- 
men who  were  living  at  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Hastings  had 
died  out.  These  changes  were  more  or  less  rapid,  according 
to  circumstances.  But  perhaps  the  most  rapid  and  remarkable 
change  took  place  in  the  lifetime  of  William  Caxton,  the  great 
printer,  who  was  born  about  1420.  In  his  preface  to  his  transla- 
tion of  the  '  iEneid '  of  Virgil,  which  he  published  in  1490,  when 
he  was  seventy  years  of  age,  he  says  that  he  cannot  understand  old 
books  that  were  written  when  he  was  a  boy — that  "the  olde 
Englysshe  is  more  lyke  to  dutche  than  englysshe,"  and  that  "  our 
langage  now  vsed  varyeth  ferre  from  that  whiche  was  vsed  and 
spoken  when  I  was  borne.  For  we  Englysshemen  ben  borne 
ynder  the  domynacyon  of  the  mone  [moon],  which  is  neuer 
stedfaste,  but  euer  wauerynge,  wexynge  one  season,  and  waneth 
and  dycreaseth  another  season."  This  as  regards  time. — But 
he  has  the  same  complaint  to  make  as  regards  place.  "  Comyn 
englysshe  that  is  spoken  in  one  shyre  varyeth  from  another." 
And  he  tells  an  odd  story  in  illustration  of  this  fact.  He  tells 
about  certain  merchants  who  were  in  a  ship  "  in  Tamyse  "  (on  the 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  305 

Thames),  who  were  bound  for  Zealand,  but  were  wind-stayed  at 
the  Foreland,  and  took  it  into  their  heads  to  go  on  shore  there. 
One  of  the  merchants,  whose  name  was  Sheffelde,  a  mercer, 
entered  a  house,  "and  axed  for  mete,  and  specyally  he  axyd 
after  eggys."  But  the  "  goode-wyf  "  replied  that  she  "  coudo 
speke  no  frenshe."  The  merchant,  who  was  a  steady  English- 
man, lost  his  temper,  "  for  he  also  coude  speke  no  frenshe,  but 
wolde  have  hadde  eggys ;  and  she  understode  hym  not."  Fortu- 
nately, a  friend  happened  to  join  him  in  the  house,  and  he  acted 
as  interpreter.  The  friend  said  that  "he  wolde  have  eyren; 
then  the  goode  wyf  sayde  that  she  understod  hym  wel."  And 
then  the  simple-minded  but  much-perplexed  Caxton  goes  on  to 
say :  "  Loo  !  what  sholde  a  man  in  thyse  dayes  now  wry te,  egge's 
or  eyren  1 "  Such  were  the  difficulties  that  beset  printers  and 
writers  in  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

37.  Latin  of  the  Fourth  Period. — (i)  This  contribution  differs 
very  essentially  in  character  from  the  last.  The  Norman-French 
contribution  was  a  gift  from  a  people  to  a  people — from  living 
beings  to  living  beings  ;  this  new  contribution  was  rather  a  con- 
veyance of  words  from  books  to  books,  and  it  never  influenced 
— in  any  great  degree — the  spoken  language  of  the  English 
people.  The  ear  and  the  mouth  carried  the  Norman-French 
words  into  our  language;  the  eye,  the  pen,  and  the  printing- 
press  were  the  instruments  that  brought  in  the  Latin  words  of 
the  Fourth  Period.  The  Norman-French  words  that  came  in 
took  and  kept  their  place  in  the  spoken  language  of  the  masses 
of  the  people  j  the  Latin  words  that  we  received  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  kept  their  place  in  the  written  or 
printed  language  of  books,  of  scholars,  and  of  literary  men 
These  new  Latin  words  came  in  with  the  Revival  of  Learning, 
which  is  also  called  the  Renascence. 

The  Turks  attacked  and  took  Constantinople  in  the  year 
1453;  and  the  great  Greek  and  Latin  scholars  who  lived  in 
that  city  hurriedly  packed  up  their  priceless  manuscripts  and 
books,  and  fled  to  all  parts  of  Italy,  Germany,  France,  and  even 
into  England.  The  loss  of  the  East  became  the  gain  of  the 
West.     These  scholars  became  teachers ;  they  taught  the  Greek 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

and  Roman  classics  to  eager  and  earnest  learners ;  and  thus  a 
new  impulse  was  given  to  the  study  of  the  great  masterpieces  of 
human  thought  and  literary  style.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  in 
course  of  time  that  every  one  who  wished  to  become  an  edu- 
cated man  studied  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome.  Even 
women  took  to  the  study.  Lady  Jane  Grey  was  a  good  Greek 
and  Latin  scholar;  and.  so  was  Queen  Elizabeth.  From  this 
time  began  an  enormous  importation  of  Latin  words  into  our 
language.  Being  imported  by  the  eye  and  the  pen,  they  suffered 
little  or  nc  change ;  the  spirit  of  the  people  did  not  influence 
them  in  the  least — neither  the  organs  of  speech  nor  the  ear 
affected  either  the  pronunciation  or  the  spelling  of  them.  If  we 
look  down  the  columns  of  any  English  dictionary,  we  shall  find 
these  later  Latin  words  in  hundreds.  Opinionem  became 
opinion;  /actionem,  faction;  orationem,  oration;  pungentem 
passed  over  in  the  form  of  pungent  (though  we  had  'poignant 
already  from  the  Erench) ;  pauperem  came  in  as  pauper ;  and 
separatum  became  separate. 

38.  Latin  of  the  Fourth  Period.  —  (ii)  This  went  on  to 
such  an  extent  in  the  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  that  one  writer  says  of  those  who  spoke 
and  wrote  this  Latinised  English,  "  If  some  of  their  mothers 
were  alive,  they  were  not  able  to  tell  what  they  say."  And 
Sir  Thomas  Browne  (1605-1682)  remarks:  "If  elegancy 
(  =  the  use  of  Latin  words)  still  proceedeth,  and  English 
pens  maintain  that  stream  we  have  of  late  observed  to  flow 
from  many,  we  shall,  within  a  few  years,  be  fain  to  learn  Latin 
to  understand  English,  and  a  work  will  prove  of  equal  facility 
in  either."  Mr  Alexander  Gill,  an  eminent  schoolmaster,  and 
the  then  head-master  of  St  Paul's  School,  where,  among  his 
other  pupils,  he  taught  John  Milton,  wrote  a  book  in  1619  on 
the  English  language ;  and,  among  other  remarks,  he  says  :  "  0 
harsh  lips !  I  now  hear  all  around  me  such  words  as  common, 
vices,  envy,  malice  ;  even  virtue,  study,  justice,  pity,  mercy,  com- 
passion, profit,  commodity,  colour,  grace,  favour,  acceptance. 
But  whither,  I  pray,  in  all  the  world,  have  you  banished  those 
words  which  our  forefathers  used  for  these  new-fangled  ones? 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.     307 

Are  our  words  to  be  executed  like  our  citizens  ? "  And  he  calls 
this  fashion  of  using  Latin  words  "  the  new  mange  in  our  speak- 
ing and  writing."  But  the  fashion  went  on  growing ;  and  even 
uneducated  people  thought  it  a  clever  thing  to  use  a  Latin 
instead  of  a  good  English  word.  Samuel  Rowlands,  a  writer  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  ridicules  this  affectation  in  a  few  lines 
of  verse.  He  pretends  that  he  was  out  walking  on  the  highroad, 
and  met  a  countryman  who  wanted  to  know  what  o'clock  it  was, 
and  whether  he  was  on  the  right  way  to  the  town  or  village  he 
was  making  for  The  writer  saw  at  once  that  he  was  a  simple 
bumpkin ;  and,  when  he  heard  that  he  had  lost  his  way,  he 
turned  up  his  nose  at  the  poor  fellow,  and  ordered  him  to  be  off 
at  once.     Here  are  the  lines  : — 

"  As  on  the  way  I  itinerated, 
A  rural  person  I  obviated, 
Interrogating  time's  transitation, 
And  of  the  passage  demonstration. 
My  apprehension  did  ingenious  scan 
That  he  was  merely  a  simplician  ; 
So,  when  I  saw  he  was  extravagant, 
Unto  the  Obscure  vulgar  consonant, 
I  bade  him  vanish  most  promiscuously, 
And  not  contaminate  my  company." 

39.  Latin  of  the  Fourth  Period. — (iii)  What  happened  in  the 
case  of  the  Norman-French  contribution,  happened  also  in  this. 
The  language  became  saturated  with  these  new  Latin  words, 
until  it  became  satiated,  then,  as  it  were,  disgusted,  and  would 
take  no  more.     Hundreds  of 

"  Long- tailed  words  in  osity  and  ation" 

crowded  into  the  English  language;  but  many  of  them  were 
doomed  to  speedy  expulsion.  Thus  words  like  discerptibilif//, 
supervacaneoutmesH,  septentrionality,  ludihundness  (love  of  sport), 
came  in  in  crowds.  The  verb  intenerate  tried  to  turn  out  soften  ; 
and  deturpate  to  take  the  place  of  defile.  But  good  writers,  like 
Bacon  and  Raleigh,  took  care  to  avoid  the  use  of  such  terms, 
and  to  employ  only  those  Latin  words  which  gave  them  the 
power  to  indicate  a  new  idea — a  new  meaning  or  a  new  shade 


308  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

of  meaning.  And  when  we  come  to  the  eighteenth  century,  we 
find  that  a  writer  like  Addison  would  have  shuddered  at  the 
very  mention  of  such  "  inkhorn  terms." 

40.  Eye-Latin  and  Ear-Latin. — (i)  One  slight  influence  pro- 
duced by  this  spread  of  devotion  to  classical  Latin — to  the  Latin 
of  Cicero  and  Livy,  of  Horace  and  Virgil — was  to  alter  the 
spelling  of  French  words.  We  had  already  received — through 
the  ear — the  French  words  assaute,  aventure,  defaut,  dette,  vitaille, 
and  others.  But  when  our  scholars  became  accustomed  to  the 
book-form  of  these  words  in  Latin  books,  they  gradually  altered 
them — for  the  eye  and  ear — into  assault,  adventure,  default, 
debt,  and  victuals.  They  went  further.  A  large  number  of 
Latin  words  that  already  existed  in  the  language  in  their 
Norman-French  form  (for  we  must  not  forget  that  French  is 
Latin  "with  the  ends  bitten  off" — changed  by  being  spoken 
peculiarly  and  heard  imperfectly)  were  reintroduced  in  their 
original  Latin  form.  Thus  we  had  caitiff  from  the  Normans; 
but  we  reintroduced  it  in  the  shape  of  captive,  which  comes 
almost  unaltered  from  the  Latin  captivum.  Feat  we  had  from 
the  Normans;  but  the  Latin  factum,  which  provided  the  word, 
presented  us  with  a  second  form  of  it  in  the  word  fact.  Such 
words  might  be  called  Ear-Latin  and  Eye-Latin ;  Mouth- 
Latin  and  Book-Latin  ;  Spoken  Latin  and  Written  Latin ; 
or  Latin  at  second-hand  and  Latin  at  first-hand. 

41.  Eye-Latin  and  Ear-Latin. — (ii)  This  coming  in  of  the 
same  word  by  two  different  doors — by  the  Eye  and  by  the  Ear — 
has  given  rise  to  the  phenomenon  of  Doublets.  The  following 
is  a  list  of  Latin  Doublets ;  and  it  wiU  be  noticed  that  Latin  * 
stands  for  Latin  at  first-hand — from  books ;  and  Latin  2  for 
Latin  at  second-hand — through  the  Norman-French. 


Latin  Doublets  or  Duplicates 

Latin.                                    Latin  *. 

Latin  2. 

Antecessorem                                       Antecessor 

Ancestor. 

Benedictionem                                      Benediction 

Benison. 

Cadentia  (Low  Lat.  noun)                  Cadence 

Chance. 

Captivum                                            Captive 

Caitiff. 

VOCABULARY   OF  THE   ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


309 


Conceptionem 

Conception 

Conceit. 

Consuetudinem 

Consuetude 

f  Custom. 
I  Costume. 

Cophinum 

Coffin 

Coffer. 

Corpus  (a  body) 

Corpse 

Corps. 

Debitum  (something  owed) 

Debit 

Debt 

Defectum  (something  wanting) 

Defect 

Defeat. 

Dilatare 

Dilate 

Delay. 

Exemplum 

Example 

Sample. 

Fabrfca  (a  workshop) 

Fabric 

Forge. 

Factionem 

Faction 

Fashion. 

Factum 

Fact 

Feat. 

Fidelitatem 

Fidelity 

Fealty. 

Fragilem 

Fragile 

Frail. 

Gentilis  (belonging  to  a  gens  or 

Gentile 

Gentle. 

family) 

Historia 

History 

Story. 

H 08  pi  tale 

Hospital 

Hotel. 

Lectionem 

Lection 

Lesson. 

Legalem 

Legal 

Loyal. 

Magister 

Master 

Mr. 

Majorem  (greater) 

Major 

Mayor. 

Maledictionem 

Malediction 

Malison. 

Moneta 

Mint 

Money. 

Nutrimentum 

Nutriment 

Nourishment. 

Orationem 

Oration 

Orison  (a  prayer). 

Paganum  (a  dweller  in  a  pagus 

Pagan 

Payne  (a  proper 

or  country  district) 

name). 

Particulam  (a  little  part) 

Particle 

Parcel. 

Pauperem 

Pauper 

Poor. 

Penitentiam 

Penitence 

Penance. 

Persecutum 

Persecute 

Pursue. 

Potionem  (a  draught) 

Potion 

Poison. 

Pungentem 

Pungent 

Poignant. 

Quietum 

Quiet 

Coy. 

Radius 

Radius 

Ray. 

Regalem 

Regal 

Royal. 

Respectum 

Respect 

Respite. 

Securum 

Secure 

Sure. 

Seniorem 

Senior 

Sir. 

Separatum 

Separate 

Sever. 

Species 

Species 

Spice. 

Statum 

State 

Estate. 

Tractum 

Tract 

Trait. 

Traditionem 

Tradition 

Treason. 

Zelosum 

Zealous 

Jealous. 

310  HISTORY    OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

42.  Remarks  on  the  above  Table. — The  word  benison,  a 
blessing,  may  be  contrasted  with  its  opposite,  malison,  a  cursa 
— Cadence  is  the  falling  of  sounds ;  chance  the  befalling  of 
events. — A  caitiff  was  at  first  a  captive — then  a  person  who 
made  no  proper  defence,  but  allowed  himself  to  be  taken  captive. 
— A  corps  is  a  body  of  troops. — The  word  sample  is  found,  in 
older  English,  in  the  form  of  ensample. — A  feat  of  arms  is  a 
deed  or  fact  of  arms,  par  excellence. — To  understand  how  fragile 
became  frail,  we  must  pronounce  the  g  hard,  and  notice  how 
the  hard  guttural  falls  easily  away — as  in  our  own  native  words 
nail  and  hail,  which  formerly  contained  a  hard  g. — A  major  is 
a  greater'  captain ;  a  mayor  is  a  greater  magistrate. — A  magister 
means  a  bigger  man — as  opposed  to  a  minister  (from  minus),  a 
smaller  man. — Moneta  was  the  name  given  to  a  stamped  coin5 
because  these  coins  were  first  struck  in  the  temple  of  Juno 
Moneta,  Juno  the  Adviser  or  the  Warner.  (From  the  same 
root — mon — come  monition,  admonition;  monitor;  admonish.) 
— Shakespeare  uses  the  word  orison  freely  for  prayer,  as  in  the 
address  of  Hamlet  to  Ophelia,  where  he  says,  "  Nymph,  in  thy 
orisons,  be  all  my  sins  remembered  ! " — Poor  comes  to  us  from 
an  Old  French  word  poure  ;  the  newer  French  is  pauvre. — To 
understand  the  vanishing  of  the  g  sound  in  poignant,  we  must 
remember  that  the  Eomans  sounded  it  always  hard. — Sever  we 
get  through  separate,  because  p  and  v  are  both  labials,  and 
therefore  easily  interchangeable. — Treason — with  its  s  instead 
of  ti — may  be  compared  with  benison,  malison,  orison,  poison, 
and  reason. 

43.  Conclusions  from  the  above  Table. — If  we  examine  the 
table  on  page  309  with  care,  we  shall  come  to  several  undeniable 
conclusions.  (i)  First,  the  words  which  come  to  us  direct 
from  Latin  are  found  more  in  books  than  in  everyday  speech, 
(ii)  Secondly,  they  are  longer.  The  reason  is  that  the  words 
that  have  come  through  French  have  been  worn  down  by  the 
careless  pronunciation  of  many  generations — by  that  desire  for 
ease  in  the  pronouncing  of  words  which  characterises  all 
languages,  and  have  at  last  been  compelled  to  take  that  form 
which  was  least  difficult  to  pronounce,     (iii)  Thirdly,  the  two 


VOCABULARY   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  311 

sets  of  words  have,  in  each  case,  either  (a)  very  different 
meanings,  or  (b)  different  shades  of  meaning.  There  is  no  like- 
ness of  meaning  in  cadence  and  chance,  except  the  common 
meaning  oifall  which  belongs  to  the  root  from  which  they  both 
spring.  And  the  different  shades  of  meaning  between  history 
and  story,  between  regal  and  royal,  between  persecute  and 
pursue,  are  also  quite  plainly  marked,  and  are  of  the  greatest 
use  in  composition. 

44.  Latin  Triplets. — Still  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that 
there  are  in  our  language  words  that  have  made  three  appear- 
ances— one  through  Latin,  one  through  Norman-French,  and 
one  through  ordinary  French.  These  seem  to  live  quietly  side 
by  side  in  the  language ;  and  no  one  asks  by  what  claim  they 
are  here.  They  are  useful :  that  is  enough.  These  triplets  are — 
regal,  royal,  and  real ;  legal,  loyal,  and  leal ;  fidelity,  faith- 
fulness,1 and  fealty.  The  adjective  real  we  no  longer  possess 
in  the  sense  of  royal,  but  Chaucer  uses  it ;  and  it  still  exists 
in  the  noun  real-m.  Leal  is  most  used  in  Scotland,  where  it 
has  a  settled  abode  in  the  well-known  phrase  "  the  land  o'  the 
leal." 

45.  Greek  Doublets. — The  same  double  introduction,  which 
we  noticed  in  the  case  of  Latin  words,  takes  place  in  regard  to 
Greek  words.  It  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  that  our  English 
forms  of  them  had  been  already  given  us  by  St  Augustine  and 
the  Church,  and  a  newer  form  of  each  was  reintroduced.  The 
following  are  a  few  examples  : — 


Greek. 

Older  Form. 

Later  Form. 

Adamanta  2  (the  untameable) 

Diamond 

Adamant. 

Balsa  tnon 

Balm 

Balsam. 

Blasphemein  (to  speak  ill  of) 

Blame 

Blaspheme. 

Cheirourgon2  (a  worker  with 

Chirurgeon 

Surgeon. 

the  hand) 

1  The  word  faith  is  a  true  French  word  with  an  English  ending— the  end- 
ing th.  Hence  it  is  a  hybrid.  The  old  French  word  was  fei — from  the  Latin 
Jidem  ;  and  the  ending  th  was  added  to  make  it  look  more  like  truth,  wtaU\ 
health,  and  other  purely  English  words. 

9  The  accusative  or  objective  case  is  given  in  all  these  words. 


312  HISTORY   OF  THE    ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 


Dacttilon  (a  finger) 

Date  (the 

fruit) 

Dactyl. 

Phantasia 

Fancy 

Phantasy. 

Phantasma  (an  appearance) 

Phantom 

Phantasm. 

Presbuteron  (an  elder) 

Priest 

Presbyter. 

Paralysis 

Palsy 

Paralysis. 

Scandalon 

Slander 

Scandal. 

It  may  be  remarked  of  the  word  fancy,  that,  in  Shakespeare's 
time,  it  meant  love  or  imagination — ■ 

"  Tell  me,  where  is  fancy  bred, 
Or  in  the  heart,  or  in  the  head  ?  " 

It  is  now  restricted  to  mean  a  lighter  and  less  serious  kind  of 
imagination.  Thus  we  say  that  Milton's  'Paradise  Lost'  is 
a  work  of  imagination ;  but  that  Moore's  '  Lalla  Rookh '  is  a 
product  of  the  poet's  fancy. 

46.  Characteristics  of  the  Two  Elements  of  English. — If 
we  keep  our  attention  fixed  on  the  two  chief  elements  in  our 
language — the  English  element  and  the  Latin  element — the 
Teutonic  and  the  Romance — we  shall  find  some  striking  qualities 
manifest  themselves.  We  have  already  said  that  whole  sentences 
can  be  made  containing  only  English  words,  while  it  is  impossible 
to  do  this  with  Latin  or  other  foreign  words.  Let  us  take  two 
passages  —  one  from  a  daily  newspaper,  and  the  other  from 
Shakespeare  : — 

(i)  "  We  find  the  functions  of  such  an  official  defined  in  the  Act.  He 
is  to  be  a  legally  qualified  medical  practitioner  of  skill  and  experience,  to 
inspect  and  report  periodically  on  the  sanitary  condition  of  town  or  dis- 
trict;  to  ascertain  the  existence  of  diseases,  more  especially  epidemics 
increasing  the  rates  of  mortality,  and  to  point  out  the  existence  of  any 
nuisances  or  other  local  causes,  which  are  likely  to  originate  and  maintain 
such  diseases,  and  injuriously  affect  the  health  of  the  inhabitants  of  such 
town  or  district ;  to  take  cognisance  of  the  existence  of  any  contagious 
disease,  and  to  point  out  the  most  efficacious  means  for  the  ventilation  of 
chapels,  schools,  registered  lodging-houses,  and  other  public  buildings." 

In  this  passage,  all  the  words  in  italics  are  either  Latin  or 
Greek.  But,  if  the  purely  English  words  were  left  out,  the 
sentence  would  fall  into  ruins — would  become  a  mere  rubbish- 
heap  of  words.     It  is  the  small  particles   that  give  lrfe   and 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  313 

motion  to  each  sentence.  They  are  the  joints  and  hinges  on 
which  the  whole  sentence  moves. — Let  us  now  look  at  a  passage 
from  Shakespeare.  It  is  from  the  speech  of  Macbeth,  after  he 
has  made  up  his  mind  to  murder  Duncan  : — 

(ii)  "  Go  bid  tuy  mistress,  when  my  drink  is  ready, 
She  strike  upon  the  bell.     Get  thee  to  bed ! — 
Is  this  a  dagger  which  I  see  before  me, 
The  handle  toward  my  hand  ?     Come !  let  me  clutch  thee ! 
— I  have  thee  not ;  and  yet  I  see  thee  still." 

In  this  passage  there  is  only  one  Latin  (or  French)  word — the 
word  mistress.  If  Shakespeare  had  used  the  word  lady,  the 
passage  would  have  been  entirely  English. — The  passage  from 
the  newspaper  deals  with  large  generalisations ;  that  from 
Shakespeare  with  individual  acts  and  feelings  —  with  things 
that  come  home  "  to  the  business  and  bosom  "  of  man  as  man. 
Every  master  of  the  English  language  understands  well  the  art 
of  mingling  the  two  elements — so  as  to  obtain  a  fine  effect;  and 
none  better  than  writers  like  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Gray,  and 
Tennyson.     Shakespeare  makes  Antony  say  of  Cleopatra : — 

"  Age  cannot  wither  her ;  nor  custom  stale 
Her  infinite  variety." 

Here  the  French  (or  Latin)  words  custom  and  variety  form  a 
vivid  contrast  to  the  English  verb  stale,  throw  up  its  meaning 
and  colour,  and  give  it  greater  prominence. — Milton  makes  Eve 

say:— 

"  I  thither  went 
With  inexperienc'd  thought,  and  laid  me  down 
On  the  green  bank,  to  look  into  the  clear 
Smooth  lake,  that  to  me  seem'd  another  sky." 

Here  the  words  inexperienced  and  clear  give  variety  to  the  same- 
ness of  the  English  words. — Gray,  in  the  Elegy,  has  this  verse: — 

"  The  breezy  call  of  incense-breathing  morn, 

The  swallow  twittering  from  the  straw-built  shed, 
The  cock's  shrill  clarion  or  the  echoing  horn, 

No  more  shall  rouse  them  from  their  lowly  bed." 


314  HISTORY   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

Here  incense,  clarion,  and  echoing  give  a  vivid  colouring  to  the 
plainer  hues  of  the  homely  English  phrases. — Tennyson,  in  the 
Lotos-Eaters,  vi.,  writes  : — 

"  Dear  is  the  memory  of  our  wedded  lives, 
And  dear  the  last  embraces  of  our  wives 
And  their  warm  tears  :  but  all  hath  suffered  change ; 
For  surely  now  our  household  hearths  are  cold : 
Our  sons  inherit  us  :  our  looks  are  strange  : 
And  we  should  come  like  ghosts  to  trouble  joy." 

Most  powerful  is  the  introduction  of  the  French  words  suffered 
change,  inherit,  strange,  and  trouole  joy ;  for  they  give  with 
painful  force  the  contrast  of  the  present  state  of  desolation  with 
the  homely  rest  and  happiness  of  the  old  abode,  the  love  of  the 
loving  wives,  the  faithfulness  of  the  stalwart  sons. 

47.  English  and  other  Doublets. — We  have  already  seen 
how,  by  the  presentation  of  the  same  word  at  two  different 
doors — the  door  of  Latin  and  the  door  of  French — we  are  in 
possession  of  a  considerable  number  of  doublets.  But  this 
phenomenon  is  not  limited  to  Latin  and  French — is  not  solely 
due  to  the  contributions  we  receive  from  these  languages.  We 
find  it  also  within  English  itself;  and  causes  of  the  most 
different  description  bring  about  the  same  results.  For  various 
reasons,  the  English  language  is  very  rich  in  doublets.  It 
possesses  nearly  five  hundred  pairs  of  such  words.  The  language 
is  all  the  richer  for  having  them,  as  it  is  thereby  enabled  to 
give  fuller  and  clearer  expression  to  the  different  shades  and 
delicate  varieties  of  meaning  in  the  mind. 

48.  The  sources  of  doublets  are  various.  But  five  different 
causes  seem  chiefly  to  have  operated  in  producing  them.  They 
are  due  to  differences  of  pronunciation ;  to  differences  in  spel- 
ling ;  to  contractions  for  convenience  in  daily  speech ;  to 
differences  in  dialects ;  and  to  the  fact  that  many  of  them  come 
from  different  languages.  Let  us  look  at  a  few  examples  of 
each.  At  bottom,  however,  all  these  differences  will  be  found 
to  resolve  themselves  into  differences  of  pronunciation.  They 
are  either  differences  in  the  pronunciation  of  the  same  word  by 


VOCABULARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  315 

different  tribes,   or  by  men  in  different  counties,  who  speak 
different  dialects ;  or  by  men  of  different  nations. 

49.  Differences  in  Pronunciation. — From  this  source  we 
have  parson  and  person  (the  parson  being  the  person  or  repre- 
sentative of  the  Church) ;  sop  and  soup  ;  task  and  tax  (the  sk 
has  here  become  ks) ;  thread  and  thrid ;  ticket  and  etiquette ; 
sauce  and  souse  (to  steep  in  brine) ;  squall  and  squeal. 

50.  Differences  in  Spelling. — To  and  too  are  the  same  word 
— one  being  used  as  a  preposition,  the  other  as  an  adverb  ;  of 
and  off,  from  and  fro,  are  only  different  spellings,  which  repre- 
sent different  functions  or  uses  of  the  same  word ;  onion  and 
union  are  the  same  word.  An  union l  comes  from  the  Latin 
unus,  one,  and  it  meant  a  large  single  pearl — a  unique  jewel ; 
the  word  was  then  applied  to  the  plant,  the  head  of  which  is  of 
a  pearl-shape. 

51.  Contractions. — Contraction  has  been  a  pretty  fruitful  source 
of  doublets  in  English.  A  long  word  has  a  syllable  or  two  cut  off ; 
or  two  or  three  are  compressed  into  one.  Thus  example  has 
become  sample ;  alone  appears  also  as  lone ;  amend  has  been 
shortened  into  mend ;  defend  has  been  cut  down  into  fend  (as 
in  fender);  manoeuvre  has  been  contracted  into  manure  (both 
meaning  originally  to  work  ivith  the  hand) ;  madam  becomes  'm 
in  yes  *m  2 ;  and  presbyter  has  been  squeezed  down  into  priest.3 
Other  examples  of  contraction  are  :  capital  and  cattle ;  chirur- 
geon  (a  worker  with  the  hand)  and  surgeon;  cholera  and 
choler  (from  cholos,  the  Greek  word  for  bile)  \  disport  and 
sport ;  estate  and  state ;  esquire  and  squire ;  Egyptian  and 

1  In  Hamlet  v.  2.  283,  Shakespeare  makes  the  King  say — 

"  The  King  shall  drink  to  Hamlet's  better  breath  ; 
And  in  the  cup  an  union  shall  he  throw." 

2  Professor  Max  Muller  gives  this  as  the  most  remarkable  instance  of 
cutting  down.  The  Latin  mea  domina  became  in  French  madame;  in 
English  ma'am;  and,  in  the  language  of  servants,  'm. 

3  Milton  says,  in  one  of  his  sonnets— 

"  New  Presbyter  is  but  old  Priest  writ  large." 

From  the  etymological  point  of  view,  the  truth  is  just  the  other  way 
about.     Priest  is  old  Presbyter  writ  small. 


316  HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 

gipsy;  emmet  and  ant;  gammon  and  game;  grandfather 
and  gaffer;  grandmother  and  gammer;  iota  (the  Greek 
letter  i)  and  jot;  maximum  and  maxim;  mobile  and  mob; 
mosquito  and  musket ;  papa  and  pope ;  periwig  and  wig ; 
poesy  and  posy;  procurator  and  proctor;  shallop  and 
sloop;  unity  and  unit.  It  is  quite  evident  that  the  above 
pairs  of  words,  although  in  reality  one,  have  very  different 
meanings  and  uses. 

52.  Difference  of  English  Dialects.  —  Another  source  of 
doublets  is  to  be  found  in  the  dialects  of  the  English  language. 
Almost  every  county  in  England  has  its  own  dialect ;  but  three 
main  dialects  stand  out  with  great  prominence  in  our  older 
literature,  and  these  are  the  Northern,  the  Midland,  and  the 
Southern.  The  grammar  of  these  dialects 1  was  different ;  their 
pronunciation  of  words  was  different — and  this  has  given  rise  to 
a  splitting  of  one  word  into  two.  In  the  North,  we  find  a  hard 
c,  as  in  the  caste?'  of  Lancaster ;  in  the  Midlands,  a  soft  c,  as 
in  Leicester ;  in  the  South,  a  ch,  as  in  Winchester.  We  shall 
find  similar  differences  of  hardness  and  softness  in  ordinary 
words.  Thus  we  find  kirk  and  church ;  canker  and  cancer  ; 
canal  and  channel ;  deck  and  thatch ;  drill  and  thrill ;  fan 
and  van  (in  a  winnowing-machine) ;  fitch  and  vetch ;  hale  and 
whole ;  mash  and  mess ;  naught,  nought,  and  not ;  pike, 
peak,  and  beak ;  poke  and  pouch ;  quid  (a  piece  of  tobacco  for 
chewing)  and  cud  (which  means  the  thing  chewed) ;  reave 
and  rob;  ridge  and  rig;  scabby  and  shabby;  scar  and 
share ;  screech  and  shriek ;  shirt  and  skirt ;  shuffle  and 
scuffle  ;  spray  and  sprig ;  wain  and  waggon — and  other  pairs. 
All  of  these  are  but  different  modes  of  pronouncing  the  same 
word  in  different  parts  of  England;  but  the  genius  of  the 
language  has  taken  advantage  of  these  different  ways  of  pro- 
nouncing to  make  different  words  out  of  them,  and  to  give 
them  different  functions,  meanings,  and  uses. 

i  See  p.  320, 


317 


CHAPTEE    III. 

HISTORY    OF    THE    GRAMMAR    OF    ENGLISH. 

1.  The  Oldest  English  Synthetic.— The  oldest  English,  or 
Anglo-Saxon,  that  was  brought  over  here  in  the  fifth  century, 
was  a  language  that  showed  the  relations  of  words  to  each  other 
by  adding  different  endings  to  words,  or  by  synthesis.  These 
endings  are  called  inflexions.  Latin  and  Greek  are  highly 
inflected  languages;  French  and  German  have  many  more 
inflexions  than  modern  English;  and  ancient  English  (or 
Anglo-Saxon)  also  possessed  a  large  number  of  inflexions. 

2.  Modern  English  Analytic. — When,  instead  of  inflexions, 
a  language  employs  small  particles — such  as  prepositions,  auxil- 
iary verbs,  and  suchlike  words  —  to  express  the  relations  of 
words  to  each  other,  such  a  language  is  called  analytic  or  non- 
inflexional.  When  we  say,  as  we  used  to  say  in  the  oldest 
English,  "  God  is  ealra  cyninga  cyning,"  we  speak  a  synthetic 
language.  But  when  we  say,  "  God  is  king  of  all  kings,"  then 
we  employ  an  analytic  or  uninflected  language. 

3.  Short  View  of  the  History  of  English  Grammar. — From 
the  time  when  the  English  language  came  over  to  this  island,  it 
has  grown  steadily  in  the  number  of  its  words.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  has  lost  just  as  steadily  in  the  number  of  its  inflexions. 
Put  in  a  broad  and  somewhat  rough  fashion,  it  may  be  said 
that— 

(i)  Up  to  about  1100— one  generation  after  the  Battle  of  Senlac 

—the  English  language  was  a  Synthetic  Language. 

Z 


318  HISTOKY   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

(ii)  From  the  year  1100  or  thereabouts,  English  has  heen  losing  Its 
Inflexions,  and  gradually  becoming  more  and  more  an  Analytic 
Language. 

4.  Causes  of  this  Change. — Even  before  the  coming  of  the 
Danes  and  the  Normans,  the  English  people  had  shown  a 
tendency  to  get  rid  of  some  of  their  inflexions.  A  similar 
tendency  can  be  observed  at  the  present  time  among  the 
Germans  of  the  Ehine  Province,  who  often  drop  an  n  at  the  end 
of  a  word,  and  show  in  other  respects  a  carelessness  about  gram- 
mar. But,  when  a  foreign  people  comes  among  natives,  such  a 
tendency  is  naturally  encouraged,  and  often  greatly  increased. 
The  natives  discover  that  these  inflexions  are  not  so  very 
important,  if  only  they  can  get  their  meaning  rightly  conveyed 
to  the  foreigners.  Both  parties,  accordingly,  come  to  see  that 
the  root  of  the  word  is  the  most  important  element  j  they  stick 
to  that,  and  they  come  to  neglect  the  mere  inflexions.  More- 
over, the  accent  in  English  words  always  struck  the  root ;  and 
hence  this  part  of  the  word  always  fell  on  the  ear  with  the 
greater  force,  and  carried  the  greater  weight.  When  the  Danes 
— who  spoke  a  cognate  language — began  to  settle  in  England, 
the  tendency  to  drop  inflexions  increased ;  but  when  the  Nor- 
mans— who  spoke  an  entirely  different  language — came,  the 
tendency  increased  enormously,  and  the  inflexions  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  began  to  "  fall  as  the  leaves  fall "  in  the  dry  wind  of  a 
frosty  October.  Let  us  try  to  trace  some  of  these  changes  and 
losses. 

5.  Grammar  of  the  First  Period,  450-1100.— The  English  of 
this  period  is  called  the  Oldest  English  or  Anglo-Saxon.  The 
gender  of  nouns  was  arbitrary,  or — it  may  be — poetical ;  it  did 
not,  as  in  modern  English  it  does,  follow  the  sex.  Thus  nama, 
a  name,  was  masculine ;  tunge,  a  tongue,  feminine  ;  and  eage, 
an  eye,  neuter.  Like  nama,  the  proper  names  of  men  ended  in 
a ;  and  we  find  such  names  as  Ida,  Offa,  Penda,  as  the  names  of 
kings.  Nouns  at  this  period  had  four  cases,  with  inflexions  for 
each  ;  now  we  possess  but  one  inflexion — that  for  the  possessive. 
— Even  the  definite  article  was  inflected. — The  infinitive  of  verbs 
ended  in  an;  and  the   sign  to — which  we  received  from  the 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GRAMMAR   OF  ENGLISH.  319 

Danes — was  not  in  use,  except  for  the  dative  of  the  infinitive. 
This  dative  infinitive  is  still  preserved  in  such  phrases  as  "a 
house  to  let ; "  "  bread  to  eat ; "  "  water  to  drink." — The  present 
participle  ended  in  ende  (in  the  North  ande).  This  participle  in 
time  dropped  its  own  proper  termination,  and  accepted  ing  from 
the  verbal  noun,  to  which  (under  the  modern  name  of  gerund)  it 
communicated  some  of  its  own  syntactical  peculiarities. — The 
plural  of  the  present  indicative  ended  in  ath  for  all  three 
persons.  In  the  perfect  tense,  the  plural  ending  was  on. — There 
was  no  future  tense  ;  the  work  of  the  future  was  done  by 
the  present  tense.  Fragments  of  this  usage  still  survive  in 
the  language,  as  when  we  say,  "He  goes  up  to  town  next 
week." — Prepositions  governed  various  cases ;  and  not  always 
the  objective  (or  accusative),  as  they  do  now. 

6.  Grammar  of  the  Second  Period,  1100-1250. — The  English 
of  this  period  is  called  Early  English.  Even  before  the  coming 
of  the  Normans,  the  inflexions  of  our  language  had — as  we  have 
seen — begun  to  drop  off,  and  it  was  slowly  on  the  way  to  becom- 
ing an  analytic  language.  The  same  changes — the  same  simpli- 
fication of  grammar,  has  taken  place  in  nearly  every  Low 
German  language.  But  the  coming  of  the  Normans  hastened 
these  changes,  for  it  made  the  inflexional  endings  of  words  of 
much  less  practical  importance  to  the  English  themselves. — Great 
changes  took  place  in  the  pronunciation  also.  The  hard  c  or  k 
was  softened  into  ch ;  and  the  hard  guttural  g  was  refined  into 
a  y  or  even  into  a  silent  w. — A  remarkable  addition  was  made 
to  the  language.  The  Oldest  English  or  Anglo-Saxon  had  no 
indefinite  article.  They  said  ofer  stdn  for  on  a  rock.  But,  as 
the  French  have  made  the  article  un  out  of  the  Latin  unus,  so 
the  English  pared  down  the  northern  ane  (=  one)  into  the 
article  an  or  a.  The  Anglo-Saxon  definite  article  was  se,  seo, 
]?aet ;  and  in  the  grammar  of  this  Second  Period  it  became  ]?e, 
}?eo,  ]>e. — The  French  plural  in  es  took  the  place  of  the  English 
plural  in  en.  But  housen  and  shoon  existed1  for  many  centuries 
after  the  Norman  coming;  and  Mr.  Barnes,  the  Dorsetshire 
poet,  always  deplored  the  ugly  sound  of  nests  and  fists,  and  wanted 
to  be  able  to  say  and  to  write  nesten  and  fisten. — The  dative 
plural,  which  ended  in  um,  becomes  an  e  or  an  en.    The  um, 

1  Both  forms  still  exist  in  dialect. 


320  HISTORY  OF   THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

however,  still  exists  in  the  form  of  om  In  seldom  ( =  at  few 
times)  and  whilom  ( =  in  old  times). — The  gender  of  nouns  falls 
into  confusion,  and  begins  to  show  a  tendency  to  follow  the  sex. 
— Adjectives  show  a  tendency  to  drop  several  of  their  inflexions, 
and  to  become  as  serviceable  and  accommodating  as  they  are 
now — when  they  are  the  same  with  all  numbers,  genders,  and 
cases. — The  an  of  the  infinitive  becomes  en,  and  sometimes 
even  the  n  is  dropped. — Shall  and  will  begin  to  be  used  as 
tense-auxiliaries  for  the  future  tense. 

7.  Grammar  of  the  Third  Period,  1250-1350.—  The  English  of 
this  period  is  often  called  Middle  English. — The  definite  article 
still  preserves  a  few  inflexions. — Nouns  that  were  once  masculine 
or  feminine  become  neuter,  for  the  sake  of  convenience. — The 
possessive  in  es  becomes  general. — Adjectives  make  their  plural 
in  e. — The  infinitive  now  takes  to  before  it — except  after  a  few 
verbs,  like  bid,  see,  hear,  etc. — The  present  participle  in  inge 
makes  its  appearance  about  the  year  1300. 

8.  Grammar  of  the  Fourth  Period,  1350-1485. — This  may  be 
called  Later  Middle  English.  An  old  writer  of  the  fourteenth 
century  points  out  that,  in  his  time — and  before  it — the  English 
language  was  "  a-deled  a  thre,"  divided  into  three  j  that  is,  that 
there  were  three  main  dialects,  the  Northern,  the  Midland, 
and  the  Southern.  There  were  many  differences  in  the  grammar 
of  these  dialects ;  but  the  chief  of  these  differences  is  found  in 
the  plural  of  the  present  indicative  of  the  verb.  This  part  of 
the  verb  formed  its  plurals  in  the  following  manner : — 

Northern.  Midland.  Southern. 

We  hopes  We  hopen  We  hopeth. 

You  hopes  You  hopen  You  hopeth. 

They  hopes  They  hopen  They  hopeth.1 

In  time  the  Midland  dialect  conquered  :  and  the  East  Midland 
form  of  it  became  predominant  all  over  England.  As  early  as 
the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  this  dialect  had  thrown 
off  most  of  the  old  inflexions,  and  had  become  almost  as  flexion- 

1  This  plural  we  still  find  in  the  famous  Winchester  motto,  "Manners 
maketh  man." 


HISTORY   OF  THE   GRAMMAR   OF   ENGLISH.  321 

less  as  the  English  of  the  present  day.  Let  us  note  a  few  of 
the  more  prominent  changes. — The  first  personal  pronoun  Ic  or 
Ich  loses  the  guttural,  and  becomes  L — The  pronouns  him, 
them,  and  whom,  which  are  true  datives,  are  used  either  as 
datives  or  as  objectives. — The  imperative  plural  ends  in  eth. 
"Riseth  up,"  Chaucer  makes  one  of  his  characters  say,  "and 
stondeth  by  me  ! " — The  useful  and  almost  ubiquitous  letter  e 
comes  in  as  a  substitute  for  a,  u,  and  even  an.  Thus  nama 
becomes  name,  sunu  (son)  becomes  sune,  and  withutan  changes 
into  withute. — The  dative  of  adjectives  is  used  as  an  adverb. 
Thus  we  find  softe,  brighte  employed  like  our  softly,  brightly. 
— The  n  in  the  infinitive  has  fallen  away ;  but  the  e  is  sounded 
as  a  separate  syllable.  Thus  we  find  breke,  smite  for  breken 
and  smiten. 

9.  General  View. — In  the  time  of  King  Alfred,  the  West- 
Saxon  speech — the  Wessex  dialect — took  precedence  of  the  rest, 
and  became  the  literary  dialect  of  England.  But  it  had  not,  and 
could  not  have,  any  influence  on  the  spoken  language  of  other 
parts  of  England,  for  the  simple  reason  that  very  few  persons 
were  able  to  travel,  and  it  took  days — and  even  weeks — for  a 
man  to  go  from  Devonshire  to  Yorkshire.  In  course  of  time 
the  Midland  dialect — that  spoken  between  the  Humber  and 
the  Thames  —  became  the  predominant  dialect  of  England; 
and  the  East  Midland  variety  of  this  dialect  became  the 
parent  of  modern  standard  English.  This  predominance  was 
probably  due  to  the  fact  that  it,  soonest  of  all,  got  rid  of  its 
inflexions,  and  became  most  easy,  pleasant,  and  convenient  to 
use.  And  this  disuse  of  inflexions  was  itself  probably  due  to 
the  early  Danish  settlements  in  the  east,  to  the  larger  number 
of  Normans  in  that  part  of  England,  to  the  larger  number  of 
thriving  towns,  and  to  the  greater  and  more  active  communi- 
cation between  the  eastern  seaports  and  the  Continent.  The 
inflexions  were  first  confused,  then  weakened,  then  forgotten, 
finally  lost.  The  result  was  an  extreme  simplification,  which 
still  benefits  all  learners  of  the  English  language.  Instead  of 
spending  a  great  deal  of  time  on  the  learning  of  a  large  number 
of   inflexions,   which  are  to  them  arbitrary  and  meaningless, 


322  HISTORY   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

foreigners  have  only  to  fix  their  attention  on  the  words  and 
phrases  themselves,  that  is,  on  the  very  pith  and  marrow  of  the 
language — indeed,  on  the  language  itself.  Hence  the  great 
German  grammarian  Grimm,  and  others,  predict  that  English 
will  spread  itseif  all  over  the  world,  and  become  the  universal 
language  of  the  future.  In  addition  to  this  almost  complete 
sweeping  away  of  all  inflexions, — which  made  Dr  Johnson  say, 
"  Sir,  the  English  language  has  no  grammar  at  all," — there  were 
other  remarkable  and  useful  results  which  accrued  from  the 
coming  in  of  the  Xorman-Erench  and  other  foreign  elements. 

10.  Monosyllables. — The  stripping  off  of  the  inflexions  of 
our  language  cut  a  large  number  of  words  down  to  the  root." 
Hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  our  verbs  were  dissyllables,  but, 
by  the  gradual  loss  of  the  ending  en  (which  was  in  Anglo-Saxon 
an),  they  became  monosyllables.  Thus  bindan,  drincan,  find- 
an,  became  bind,  drink,  find ;  and  this  happened  with  hosts 
of  other  verbs.  Again,  the  expulsion  of  the  guttural,  which 
the  Normans  never  could  or  would  take  to,  had  the  effect  of 
compressing  many  words  of  two  syllables  into  one.  Thus 
hagol,  twaegen,  and  faegen,  became  hail,  twain,  and  fain. — 
In  these  and  other  ways  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  present 
English  is  to  a  very  large  extent  of  a  monosyllabic  character.  So 
much  is  this  the  case,  that  whole  books  have  been  written  for 
children  in  monosyllables.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  mono- 
syllabic style  is  often  dull,  but  it  is  always  serious  and  homely. 
We  can  find  in  our  translation  of  the  Bible  whole  verses  that 
are  made  up  of  words  of  only  one  syllable.  Many  of  the  most 
powerful  passages  in  Shakespeare,  too,  are  written  in  monosylla- 
bles. The  same  may  be  said  of  hundreds  of  our  proverbs — such 
as,  "  Cats  hide  their  claws  "  ;  "  Fair  words  please  fools  " ;  "  He 
that  has  most  time  has  none  to  lose."  Great  poets,  like  Tenny- 
son and  Matthew  Arnold,  understand  well  the  fine  effect  to  be 
produced  from  the  mingling  of  short  and  long  words — of  the 
homely  English  with  the  more  ornate  Eomance  language.  In 
the  following  verse  from  Matthew  Arnold  the  words  are  all 
monosyllables,  with  the  exception  of  tired  and  contention  (which 
is  Latin) : — 


HISTORY   OF  THE  GRAMMAR  OF  ENGLISH.  323 

"  Let  the  long  contention  cease  ; 
Geese  are  swans,  and  swans  are  geese  ; 
Let  them  have  it  how  they  will, 
Thou  art  tired.     Best  be  still ! " 

Tn  Tennyson's  "  Lord  of  Burleigh,"  when  the  sorrowful  hus- 
band comes  to  look  upon  his  dead  wife,  the  verse  runs  almost 
entirely  in  monosyllables  : — 

"  And  he  came  to  look  upon  her, 
And  he  looked  at  her,  and  said  : 
1  Bring  the  dress,  and  put  it  on  her, 
That  she  wore  when  she  was  wed.'  " 

An  American  writer  has  well  indicated  the  force  of  the  Eng- 
lish monosyllable  in  the  following  sonnet : — 

"  Think  not  that  strength  lies  in  the  big,  round  word, 

Or  that  the  brief  and  plain  must  needs  be  weak. 
To  whom  can  this  be  true  who  once  has  heard 

The  cry  for  help,  the  tongue  that  all  men  speak, 
When  want,  or  fear,  or  woe,  is  in  the  throat, 

So  that  each  word  gasped  out  is  like  a  shriek 
Pressed  from  the  sore  heart,  or  a  strange,  wild  note 

Sung  by  some  fay  or  fiend  !     There  is  a  strength, 
Which  dies  if  stretched  too  far,  or  spun  too  fine, 

Which  has  more  height  than  breadth,  more  depth  than  length : 
Let  but  this  force  of  thought  and  speech  be  mine, 

And  he  that  will  may  take  the  sleek  fat  phrase, 
Which  glows  but  burns  not,  though  it  beam  and  shine  ; 

Light,  but  no  heat, — a  flash,  but  not  a  blaze." 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  sonnet  consists  entirely  of  mono- 
syllables, and  yet  that  the  style  of  it  shows  considerable  power 
and  vigour.  The  words  printed  in  italics  are  all  derived  from 
Latin,  with  the  exception  of  the  word  phrase,  which  is  Greek. 

11.  Change  in  the  Order  of  Words. — The  syntax — or  order 
of  words — of  the  oldest  English  was  very  different  from  that  of 
Norman-Erench.  The  syntax  of  an  Old  English  sentence  was 
clumsy  and  involved ;  it  kept  the  attention  long  on  the  strain ; 
it  was  rumbling,  rambling,  and  unpleasant  to  the  ear.  It  kept 
the  attention  on  the  strain,  because  the  verb  in  a  subordinate 
clause  was  held  back,  and  not  revealed  till  we  had  come  to  the 


324  HISTORY   OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

end  of  the  clause.  Thus  the  Anglo-Saxon  wrote  (though  in 
different  form  and  spelling) — 

"  When  Darius  saw,  that  he  overcome  be  would." 

The  newer  English,  under  French  influence,  wrote — 

"  When  Darius  saw  that  he  was  going  to  be  overcome.'' 

This  change  has  made  an  English  sentence  lighter  and  more 
easy  to  understand,  for  the  reader  or  hearer  is  not  kept  waiting 
for  the  verb ;  but  each  word  comes  just  when  it  is  expected, 
and  therefore  in  its  "  natural "  place.  The  Old  English  sentence 
— which  is  very  like  the  German  sentence  of  the  present  day — 
has  been  compared  to  a  heavy  cart  without  springs,  while  the 
newer  English  sentence  is  like  a  modern  well-hung  English  car- 
riage. Norman-French,  then,  gave  us  a  brighter,  lighter,  freer 
rhythm,  and  therefore  a  sentence  more  easy  to  understand  and 
to  employ,  more  supple,  and  better  adapted  to  everyday  use. 

12.  The  Expulsion  of  Gutturals. — (i)  Not  only  did  the  Nor- 
mans help  us  to  an  easier  and  pleasanter  kind  of  sentence,  they 
aided  us  in  getting  rid  of  the  numerous  throat-sounds  that  in- 
fested our  language.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  there  is  not 
now  in  the  French  language  a  single  guttural.  There  is  not  an  h 
in  the  whole  language.  The  French  write  an  h  in  several  of 
their  words,  but  they  never  sound  it.  Its  use  is  merely  to  serve 
as  a  fence  between  two  vowels — to  keep  two  vowels  separate,  as 
in  la  haine,  hatred.  No  doubt  the  Normans  could  utter  throat- 
sounds  well  enough  When  they  dwelt  in  Scandinavia ;  but,  after 
they  had  lived  in  France  for  several  generations,  they  acquired 
a  great  dislike  to  all  such  sounds.  No  doubt,  too,  many,  from 
long  disuse,  were  unable  to  give  utterance  to  a  guttural.  This 
dislike  they  communicated  to  the  English ;  and  hence,  in  the 
present  day,  there  are  many  people — especially  in  the  south  of 
England — who  cannot  sound  a  guttural  at  all.  The  muscles  in  the 
throat  that  help  to  produce  these  sounds  have  become  atrophied 
— have  lost  their  power  for  want  of  practice.  The  purely  Eng- 
lish part  of  the  population,  for  many  centuries  after  the  Norman 
invasion,  could  sound  gutturals  quite  easily — just  as  the  Scotch 


HISTORY  OF  THE   GRAMMAR   OF   ENGLISH.  325 

and  the  Germans  do  now ;  but  it  gradually  became  the  fashion 
in  England  to  leave  them  out. 

13.  The  Expulsion  of  Gutturals.  —  (ii)  In  some  cases  the 
guttural  disappeared  entirely ;  in  others,  it  was  changed  into  or 
represented  by  other  sounds.  The  ge  at  the  beginning  of  the 
passive  (or  past)  participles  of  many  verbs  disappeared  entirely. 
Thus  gebroht,  geboht,  geworht,  became  brought,  bought,  and 
wrought.  The  g  at  the  beginning  of  many  words  also  dropped 
off.  Thus  G-yppenswich  became  Ipswich;  gif  became  if; 
genoh,  enough. — The  guttural  at  the  end  of  words — hard  g 
or  c — alSo  disappeared.  Thus  halig  became  holy;  eordhlic, 
earthly;  gastlic,  ghastly  or  ghostly.  The  same  is  the  case  in 
dough,  through,  plough,  etc. — the  guttural  appearing  to  the 
eye  but  not  to  the  ear. — Again,  the  guttural  was  changed  into 
quite  different  sounds — into  labials,  into  sibilants,  into  other 
sounds  also.     The  following  are  a  few  examples  : — 

(a)  The  guttural  has  been  softened,  through  Norman-French 
influence,  into  a  sibilant.  Thus  rigg,  egg,  and  brigg  have 
become  ridge,  edge,  and  bridge. 

(b)  The  guttural  has  become  a  labial — f — as  in  cough, 
enough,  trough,  laugh,  draught,  etc. 

(c)  The  guttural  has  become  an  additional  syllable,  and  is 
represented  by  a  vowel-sound.  Thus  sorg  and  mearh  have 
become  sorrow  and  marrow. 

(d)  In  some  words  it  has  disappeared  both  to  eye  and  ear. 
Thus  maked  has  become  made. 

14.  The  Story  of  the  GH. — How  is  it,  then,  that  we  have  in  so 
many  words  the  two  strongest  gutturals  in  the  language — g  and 
h — not  only  separately,  in  so  many  of  our  words,  but  combined  1 
The  story  is  an  odd  one.  Our  Old  English  or  Saxon  scribes 
wrote — not  light,  might,  and  night,  but  liht,  miht,  and  niht 
When,  however,  they  found  that  the  Norman-French  gentlemen 
would  not  sound  the  h,  and  say — as  is  still  said  in  Scotland 
— licht,  &c,  they  redoubled  the  guttural,  strengthened  the  h 
with  a  hard  g,  and  again  presented  the  dose  to  the  Norman. 
But,  if  the  Norman  could  not  sound  the  h  alone,  still  less  could 
he  sound  the  double  guttural ;  and  he  very  coolly  let  both  alone 


326  HISTORY  OF   THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

— ignored  both.  The  Saxon  scribe  doubled  the  signs  for  his 
guttural,  just  as  a  fanner  might  put  up  a  strong  wooden  fence  in 
front  of  a  hedge ;  but  the  Norman  cleared  both  with  perfect 
ease  and  indifference.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  we  have  the 
symbol  gh  in  more  than  seventy  of  our  words,  and  that  in  most  of 
these  we  do  not  sound  it  at  all.  The  gh  remains  in  our  language, 
like  a  moss-grown  boulder,  brought  down  into  the  fertile  valley 
in  a  glacial  period,  when  gutturals  were  both  spoken  and  written, 
and  men  believed  in  the  truthfulness  of  letters — but  now  passed 
by  in  silence  and  noticed  by  no  one. 

15.  The  Letters  that  represent  Gutturals.  —  The  English 
guttural  has  been  quite  Protean  in  the  written  or  printed  forms 
it  takes.  It  appears  as  an  i,  as  a  y,  as  a  w,  as  a  eh,  as  a  dge, 
as  a  j,  and  —  in  its  more  native  forms —  as  a  g,  a  k,  or  a 
gh.  The  following  words  give  all  these  forms  :  hail,  day,  fowl, 
teach,  edge,  ajar,  drag,  truck,  and  trough.  Now  hail  was 
hagol,  day  was  daeg,  fowl  was  fugol,  teach  was  taecan,  edge  was 
egg,  ajar  was  achar.  In  seek,  beseech,  sought — which  are 
all  different  forms  of  the  same  word — we  see  the  guttural  appear- 
ing in  three  different  forms — as  a  hard  k,  as  a  soft  ch,  as  an  un- 
noticed gh.  In  think  and  thought,  drink  and  draught,  sly 
and  sleight,  dry  and  drought,  slay  and  slaughter,  it  takes 
two  different  forms.  In  dig,  ditch,  and  dike — which  are  all 
the  same  word  in  different  shapes — it  again  takes  three  forms. 
In  fly,  flew,  and  flight,  it  appears  as  a  y,  a  w,  and  a  gh.  But, 
indeed,  the  manners  of  a  guttural,  its  ways  of  appearing  and 
disappearing,  are  almost  beyond  counting. 

16.  Grammatical  Result  of  the  Loss  of  Inflexions. — When 
we  look  at  a  Latin  or  French  or  German  word,  we  know  whether 
it  is  a  verb  or  a  noun  or  a  preposition  by  its  mere  appearance 
— by  its  face  or  by  its  dress,  so  to  speak.  But  the  loss  of 
inflexions  which  has  taken  place  in  the  English  language  has 
resulted  in  depriving  us  of  this  advantage — if  advantage  it  is. 
Instead  of  looking  at  the  face  of  a  word  in  English,  we  are 
obliged  to  think  of  its  function, — that  is,  of  what  it  does.  We 
have,  for  example,  a  large  number  of  words  that  are  both  nouns 
and  verbs — we  may  use  them  as  the  one  or  as  the  other ;  and. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   GRAMMAR  OF   ENGLISH.  327 

till  we  have  used  them,  we  cannot  tell  whether  they  are  the 
one  or  the  other.  Thus,  when  we  speak  of  "  a  cut  on  the  fin- 
ger," cut  is  a  noun,  because  it  is  a  name ;  but  when  we  say, 
"Harry  cut  his  finger,"  then  cut  is  a  verb,  because  it  tells 
something  about  Harry.  Words  like  bud,  cane,  cut,  comb, 
cap,  dust,  fall,  fish,  heap,  mind,  name,  pen,  plaster,  punt, 
run,  rush,  stone,  and  many  others,  can  be  used  either  as  nouns 
or  as  verbs.  Again,  fast,  quick,  and  hard  may  be  used  either 
as  adverbs  or  as  adjectives ;  and  back  may  be  employed  as  an 
adverb,  as  a  noun,  and  even  as  an  adjective.  Shakespeare  is 
very  daring  in  the  use  of  this  licence.  He  makes  one  of  his  char- 
acters say,  "  But  me  no  buts  ! "  In  this  sentence,  the  first  but  is 
a  verb  in  the  imperative  mood ;  the  second  is  a  noun  in  the 
objective  case.  Shakespeare  uses  also  such  verbs  as  to  glad,  to 
mad,  such  phrases  as  a  seldom  pleasure,  and  the  fairest  she.  Dr 
Abbott  says,  "  In  Elizabethan  English,  almost  any  part  of  speech 
can  be  used  as  any  other  part  of  speech.  An  adverb  can  be  used 
as  a  verb, '  they  askance  their  eyes ' ;  as  a  noun,  '  the  backward 
and  abysm  of  time';  or  as  an  adjective,  'a  seldom  pleasure.' 
Any  noun,  adjective,  or  neuter  verb  can  be  used  as  an  active 
verb.  You  can  'happy'  your  friend,  'malice'  or  'fool'  your 
enemy,  or  'fall'  an  axe  upon  his  neck."  Even  in  modern  Eng- 
lish, almost  any  noun  can  be  used  as  a  verb.  Thus  we  can  say, 
"to  paper  a  room";  "to  water  the  horses";  "to  black-ball  a 
candidate  " ;  to  "  iron  a  shirt "  or  "  a  prisoner  " ;  "  to  toe  the  line." 
On  the  other  hand,  verbs  may  be  used  as  nouns ;  for  we  can 
speak  of  a  work,  of  a  beautiful  print,  of  a  long  walk,  and  so  on. 


828 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SPECIMENS    OF    ENGLISH    OF    DIFFERENT    PERIODS. 

1.  Vocabulary  and  Grammar. — The  oldest  English  or  Anglo- 
Saxon  differs  from  modern  English  both  in  vocabulary  and  in 
grammar — in  the  words  it  uses  and  in  the  inflexions  it  employs. 
The  difference  is  often  startling.  And  yet.  if  we  look  closely 
at  the  words  and  their  dress,  we  shall  most  often  find  that  the 
words  which  look  so  strange  are  the  very  words  with  which  we 
are  most  familiar — words  that  we  are  in  the  habit  of  using  every 
day ;  and  that  it  is  their  dress  alone  that  is  strange  and  anti- 
quated. The  effect  is  the  same  as  if  we  were  to  dress  a  modern 
man  in  the  clothes  worn  a  thousand  years  ago  :  the  chances  are 
that  we  should  not  be  able  to  recognise  even  our  dearest  friend. 

2.  A  Specimen  from  Anglo-Saxon. — Let  us  take  as  an 
example  a  verse  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  version  of  one  of  the 
Gospels.  The  well-known  verse,  Luke  ii.  40,  runs  thus  in  our 
oldest  English  version  : — 

S6J)lice  daet  cild  weox,  and  waes  gestrangod,  wisdomes  full ;  and  Godes 
gyfu  waes  on  him. 

Now  this  looks  like  an  extract  from  a  foreign  language  j  but  it 
is  not  :  it  is  our  own  veritable  mother-tongue.  Every  word  is 
pure  ordinary  English;  it  is  the  dress — the  spelling  and  the 
inflexions — that  is  quaint  and  old-fashioned.  This  will  be 
plain  from  a  literal  translation  : — 

Soothly  that  child  waxed,  and  was  strengthened,  wisdoms  full  (  =  full  of 
wisdom) ;  and  God's  gift  was  on  him. 


SPECIMENS  OF  ENGLISH  OF  DIFFEEENT  PERIODS.   329 

3.  A  Comparison. — This  will  become  plainer  if  we  compare 
the  English  of  the  Gospels  as  it  was  written  in  different  periods 
of  our  language.  The  alteration  in  the  meanings  of  words,  the 
changes  in  the  application  of  them,  the  variation  in  the  use  of 
phrases,  the  falling  away  of  the  inflexions — all  these  things 
become  plain  to  the  eye  and  to  the  mind  as  soon  as  we  thought- 
fully compare  the  different  versions.  The  following  are  extracts 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  version  (995),  the  version  of  Wycliffe 
(1380)  and  of  Tyndale  (1526),  of  the  passage  in  Luke  ii. 
44,  45:— 


Anglo-Saxon. 

Wendon  daet  he  on 
heora  gefere  waere,  d£ 
comon  hig  anes  daeges 
faer,  and  hine  sdhton  be- 
tweox  his  niagas  and  his 
cudan. 


Da  hig  hyne  ne  f  undon, 
hig  gewendon  to  Hierusa- 
lem,  hine  secende. 


Wycliffe. 

Forsothe  thei  ges- 
singe  him  to  be  in  the 
felowschipe,  camen 
the  wey  of  6,  day,  and 
80u3ten  him  among 
his  cosyns  and  know- 
en. 

And  thei  not  fynd- 
inge,  wenten  ajen  to 
Jerusalem,  sekynge 
him. 


Tyndale. 

For  they  supposed  he 
had  bene  in  the  company, 
they  cam  a  days  iorney, 
and  sought  hym  amonge 
their  kynsfolke  and  ac- 
quayntaunce. 

And  founde  hym  not 
they  went  backe  agayne 
to  Hierusalem,  and  sought 
hym. 


The   literal    translation    of    the    Anglo-Saxon    version    is    as 
follows : — 

(They)  weened  that  he  on  their  companionship  were  ( =  was),  when  came 
they  one  day's  faring,  and  him  sought  betwixt  his  relations  and  his  couth 
(folk  =  acquaintances). 

When  they  him  not  found,  they  turned  to  Jerusalem,  him  seeking. 


4.  The  Lord's  Prayer. — The  same  plan  of  comparison  may 
be  applied  to  the  different  versions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  that 
have  come  down  to  us  ;  and  it  will  be  seen  from  this  compari- 
son that  the  greatest  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  grammar, 
and  especially  in  that  part  of  the  grammar  which  contains  the 
inflexions. 


330 


HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


THE   LORD'S   PRAYER. 


1130. 

Reign  of  Stephen. 

Fader  ure,  ]>e 
art  on  heofone. 

Sy  gebletsod 
name  Jrin, 

Cume  Jrin  rike. 

Si  Jrin  wil  swa 
swa  on  heofone 
and  on  eorJ>an. 

Breod  ure  deg- 
wamlich  geof  us 
to  daeg. 

And  forgeof  us 
ageltes  ura  swa 
swa  we  forgeofen 
agiltendum  ur- 
um. 

And  ne  led  us 
on  costunge. 

Ac  alys  us  f ram 
yfele.  Swa  beo 
hit. 


1250. 

Reign 
of  Henry  III. 


Fadir  ur,  that 
es  in  hevene, 

Halud  thi  nam 
to  nevene  ; 

Thou  do  as  thi 
rich  rike  ; 

Thi  will  on  erd 
be  wrought,  eek 
as  it  is  wrought 
in  heven  ay. 

Ur  ilk  day 
brede  give  us  to 
day. 

Forgive  thou 
all  us  dettes  urs, 
als  we  forgive  till 
ur  detturs. 

And  ledde  us 
in  na  fandung. 

But  sculd  us 
fra  ivel  thing. 
Amen. 


1380. 

Wycliffe's 
Version. 

Our  Fadir,  that 
art  in  hevenys, 

Halewid  be  thi 
name  ; 

Thi  kingdom 
come  to  ; 

Be  thi  wil  done 
in  erthe,  as  in 
hevene. 

Give  to  us  this 
day  oure  breed 
ovir  othir  sub- 
staunce, 

And  forgive  to 
us  our  dettis,  as 
we  forgiven  to 
oure  dettouris. 

And  lede  us 
not  into  tempta- 
cioun; 

But  delyvere 
us  from  yvel. 
Amen. 


1526. 

Tyndale's 
Version. 

Our  Father 
which  art  in 
I  heaven  ; 

Hal  owed  be 
thy  name  ; 

Let  thy  king- 
dom come  ; 

Thy  will  be  ful- 
filled as  well  in 
earth  as  it  is  in 
heven. 

Geve  us  this 
day  ur  dayly 
bred, 

And  forgeve  us 
oure  dettes  as  we 
forgeve  ur  det- 
ters. 

And  leade  us 
not  into  tempta- 
tion, 

But  delyver  us 
from  evyll.  For 
thyne  is  the  kyng- 
dom,  and  the 
power,  and  the 
glorye,  for  ever. 
Amen. 


It  will  be  observed  that  Wycliffe's  version  contains  five  Eo- 
mance  terms  —  substaunce,  dettis,  dettouris,  temptacioun,  and 
delyvere. 

5.  Oldest  English  and  Early  English. — The  following  is  a 
short  passage  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  under  date 
1137:  first,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  form;  second,  in  Early  Eng- 
lish, or  —  as   it   has    sometimes   been  called — Broken  Saxon; 


SPECIMENS  OF  ENGLISH  OF   DIFFERENT   PERIODS.       331 

third,  in  modern  English.  The  breaking-down  of  the  gram- 
mar becomes  still  more  strikingly  evident  from  this  close 
juxtaposition. 

(i)      Hi  swencton  pa"     wreccan     menn 

(ii)      Hi  swencten  the     wrecce      men 

(iii)  They    swinked  (harassed)   the   wretched    men 

(i)  paes  landes  mid  castel-weorcum. 
(ii)  Of-the-land  mid  castel-weorces. 
(iii)  Of  the  land   with     castle-works. 

(i)  Da  pa"  castelas  waeron  gemacod, 
(ii)  Tha  the  castles  waren  maked, 
(iii)  When   the    castles      were        made, 

(i)    pa"     fyldon     hi        hi       mid    yfelum   mannum. 
(ii)    tha"    fylden     hi        hi      mid     yvele  men. 

(iii)  then     filled    they   them   with      evil  men. 

6.  Comparisons  of  Words  and  Inflexions. — Let  us  take  a 
few  of  the  most  prominent  words  in  our  language,  and  observe 
the  changes  that  have  fallen  upon  them  since  they  made  their 
appearance  in  our  island  in  the  fifth  century.  These  changes 
will  be  best  seen  by  displaying  them  in  columns  : — 


Anglo-Saxon. 

Early  English. 

Middle  English. 

Modern  Enolish. 

heom. 

to  heom. 

to  hem. 

to  them. 

8eo. 

bed. 

ho,  scho. 

she. 

8weo8trum. 

to  the  swestres. 

to  the  swistren. 

to  the  sisters. 

geboren. 

gebore. 

ibore". 

born. 

lufigende. 

lufigend. 

lovand. 

loving. 

weoxon. 

woxen. 

wexide. 

waxed. 

7.  Conclusions  from  the  above  Comparisons. — We  can  now 
draw  several  conclusions  from  the  comparisons  we  have  made 
of  the  passages  given  from  different  periods  of  the  language. 
These  conclusions  relate  chiefly  to  verbs  and  nouns  j  and  they 


332 


HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


may  become  useful  as  a  key  to  enable  us  to  judge  to  what 
period  in  the  history  of  our  language  a  passage  presented  to  us 
must  belong.  If  we  find  such  and  such  marks,  the  language  is 
Anglo-Saxon  ;  if  other  marks,  it  is  Early  English ;  and  so  on. 


I.-MARKS    OF  ANGLO- 
SAXON. 

Verbs. 

Infinitive  in  an. 

Pres.  part,  in  ende. 

Past  part,  with  ge. 

3d  plural  pres.  in  ath. 

3d  plural  past  in  on. 

Plural    of  imperatives 

in  ath. 

Nouns. 
Plurals  in  an,  as,  or  a. 
Dative  plural  in  urn. 


II.— MARKS   OF  EARLY 
ENGLISH   (1100-1250). 

Verbs. 
Infin.  in  en  or  e. 
Pres.  part,   in  Ind. 
ge  of  past  part,  turned 

into  i  or  y. 
3d  plural  in  en. 


Nouns. 
Plural  in  es. 
Dative  plural  in  es. 


III.— MARKS     OF     MID- 
DLE ENGLISH  (1250-1485). 

Verbs. 
Infin.  with   to   (the   en 
was     dropped    about 
1400). 
Pres.  part,  in  inge. 
3d  plural  in  en. 
Imperative  in  eth. 
Plurals  in   es  (separate 
syllable). 

Nouns. 
Possessives  in  es  (sepa- 
rate syllable). 


8.  The  English  of  the  Thirteenth  Century. — In  this  century 
there  was  a  great  breaking-down  and  stripping-off  of  inflexions. 
This  is  seen  in  the  Ormulum  of  Orm,  a  canon  of  the  Order  of 
St  Augustine,  whose  English  is  nearly  as  flexionless  as  that  of 
Chaucer,  although  about  a  century  and  a  half  before  him.  Orm 
has  also  the  peculiarity  of  always  doubling  a  consonant  after  a 
short  vowel.     Thus,  in  his  introduction,  he  says  : — 

"  piss  boc  iss  nemmnedd  Orrmidum 
Forr  J>i  J^att  Orrm  itt  wrohhte." 

That  is,  "This  book  is  named  Ormulum,  for  the  (reason)  that 
Orm  wrought  it."  The  absence  of  inflexions  is  probably  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  book  is  written  in  the  East-Midland  dialect. 
But,  in  a  song  called  "The  Story  of  Genesis  and  Exodus," 
written  about  1250, 
Thus  we  read  : — 


we  find  a  greater  number  of  inflexions. 


Hunger  wex  in  lond  Chanaan  ; 
And  his  x  sunes  Jacob  for-San 


SPECIMENS   OF   ENGLISH   OF   DIFFERENT   PERIODS.      333 

Sente  in  to  Egypt  to  bringen  coren  ; 
He  bilefe  at  horn  oe  was  gungest  boren." 

That  is,  "Hunger  waxed  (increased)  in  the  land  of  Canaan*, 
and  Jacob  for  that  (reason)  sent  his  ten  sons  into  Egypt  to 
bring  corn:  he  remained  at  home  that  was  youngest  born." 

9.  The  English  of  the  Fourteenth  Century.  —  The  four 
greatest  writers  of  the  fourteenth  century  are  —  in  verse, 
Chaucer  and  Langlande;  and  in  prose,  Mandeville  and 
WyclifTe.  The  inflexions  continue  to  drop  off;  and,  in 
Chaucer  at  least,  a  larger  number  of  French  words  appear. 
Chaucer  also  writes  in  an  elaborate  verse -measure  that  forms 
a  striking  contrast  to  the  homely  rhythms  of  Langlande.  Thus, 
in  the  "Man  of  Lawes  Tale,"  we  have  the  verse  : — 

"  0  queenes,  lyvynge  in  prosperity, 
Duchesses,  and  ladyes  everichone, 
Haveth  som  routhe  on  hir  adversite*e ; 
An  emperoures  doughter  stant  all  one  ; 
She  hath  no  wight  to  whom  to  make  hir  mone. 
0  blood  roial !  that  stondest  in  this  drede 
Fer  ben  thy  frendes  at  thy  grete  nede  ! " 

Here,  with  the  exception  of  the  imperative  in  Haveth  som 
routhe  (=  have  some  pity),  stant,  and  ben  ( =  are),  the  grammar 
of  Chaucer  is  very  near  the  grammar  of  to-day.  How  different 
this  is  from  the  simple  English  of  Langlande  !  He  is  speaking 
of  the  great  storm  of  wind  that  blew  on  January  15,  1362  : — 

"  Piries  and  Plomtres        weore  passchet  to  l>e  grounde, 
In  ensaumple  to  Men      }>at  we  scholde  do  ]>e  bettre, 
Beches  and  brode  okes    weore  blowen  to  \>e  eorJ>e." 

Here  it  is  the  spelling  of  Langlande's  English  that  differs  most 
from  modern  English,  and  not  the  grammar. — Much  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  style  of  Wycliffe  (1324-1384)  and  of  Mande- 
ville (1300-1372).  In  Wycliffe's  version  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark, 
v.  26,  he  speaks  of  a  woman  "  that  hadde  suffride  many  thingis 
of  ful  many  lechis  (doctors),  and  spendid  alle  hir  thingis ;  and 
no -thing  profitide."  Sir  John  Mandeville's  English  keeps 
many  old  inflexions  and  spellings;   but  is,   in  other  respects, 

modern  enough.     Speaking  of  Mahomet,  he  says :    "  And  ^ee 

2  A 


334  HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

schulle  understands  that  Maehamete  was  born  in  Arabye,  that 
was  first  a  pore  knave  that  kept  cameles,  that  wenten  with 
marchantes  for  marchandise."  Knave  for  boy,  and  icenten  for 
went  are  the  two  chief  differences — the  one  in  the  use  of  words, 
the  other  in  grammar— that  distinguish  this  piece  of  Mande- 
ville's  English  from  our  modern  speech. 

10.  The  English  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. — This,  which  is 
also  called  Tudor-English,  differs  as  regards  grammar  hardly  at 
all  from  the  English  of  the  nineteenth  century.  This  becomes 
plain  from  a  passage  from  one  of  Latimer's  sermons  (1490-1555), 
"  a  book  which  gives  a  faithful  picture  of  the  manners,  thoughts, 
and  events  of  the  period."  "My  father,"  he  writes,  "was  a 
yeoman,  and  had  no  lands  of  his  own,  only  he  had  a  farm  of 
three  or  four  pound  a  year  at  the  uttermost,  and  hereupon  he 
tilled  so  much  as  kept  half  a  dozen  men.  He  had  walk  for  a 
hundred  sheep ;  and  my  mother  milked  thirty  kine."  In  this 
passage,  it  is  only  the  old-fashionedness,  homeliness,  and  quaint- 
ness  of  the  English — not  its  grammar — that  makes  us  feel  that 
it  was  not  written  in  our  own  times.  When  Ridley,  the  fellow- 
martyr  of  Latimer,  stood  at  the  stake,  he  said,  "  I  commit  our 
cause  to  Almighty  God,  which  shall  indifferently  judge  all." 
Here  he  used  indifferently  in  the  sense  of  impartially — that  is, 
in  the  sense  of  making  no  difference  between  parties ;  and  this 
is  one  among  a  very  large  number  of  instances  of  Latin  words, 
when  they  had  not  been  long  in  our  language,  still  retaining  the 
older  Latin  meaning. 

11.  The  English  of  the  Bible  (i). — The  version  of  the  Bible 
which  we  at  present  use  was  made  in  1611;  and  we  might 
therefore  suppose  that  it  is  written  in  seventeenth-century  Eng- 
lish. But  this  is  not  the  case.  The  translators  were  com- 
manded by  James  I.  to  "  follow  the  Bishops'  Bible  " ;  and  the 
Bishops'  Bible  was  itself  founded  on  the  "  Great  Bible,"  which 
was  published  in  1539.  But  the  Great  Bible  is  itself  only  a 
revision  of  Tyndale's,  part  of  which  appeared  as  early  as  1526. 
When  we  are  reading  the  Bible,  therefore,  we  are  reading  Eng- 
lish of  the  sixteenth  century,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  of  the  early 
part  of  that  century.     It  is  true  that  successive  generations  of 


SPECIMENS  OF  ENGLISH  OF  DIFFERENT  PERIODS.      335 

printers  have,  of  their  own  accord,  altered  the  spelling,  and 
even,  to  a  slight  extent,  modified  the  grammar.  Thus  we  have 
fetched  for  the  older  fet,  more  for  moe,  sown  for  sowen,  brittle  foi 
brickie  (which  gives  the  connection  with  break),  jaws  for  chaws, 
sixth  for  sixty  and  sc  on.  But  we  still  find  6iich  participles  as 
shined  and  understanded ;  and  such  phrases  as  "they  can  skill 
to  hew  timber "  (1  Kings  v.  6),  "  abjects "  for  abject  persons, 
"  three  days  agone  *  fur  ago,  the  "  captivated  Hebrews "  for 
"the  captive  Hebrews,"  and  others. 

12.  The  English  of  the  Bible  (ii). — We  have,  again,  old 
words  retained,  or  used  in  the  older  meaning.  Thus  we  find, 
in  Psalm  v.  6,  the  phrase  "  them  that  speak  leasing,"  which 
reminds  us  of  King  Alfred's  expression  about  "leasum  spellum" 
(lying  stories).  Trow  and  ween  are  often  found;  the  "cham- 
paign over  against  Gilgal"  (Deut.  xi.  30)  means  the  plain;  and  a 
publican  in  the  New  Testament  is  a  tax-gatherer,  who  sent  to 
the  Roman  Treasury  or  Publicum  the  taxes  he  had  collected 
from  the  Jews.  An  "  ill-favoured  person  "  is  an  ill-looking  per- 
son; and  "bravery"  (Isa.  iii.  18)  is  used  in  the  sense  of  finery 
in  dress. — Some  of  the  oldest  grammar,  too,  remains,  as  in 
Esther  viii.  8,  "  Write  ye,  as  it  liketh  you,"  where  the  you  is  a 
dative.  Again,  in  Ezek.  xxx.  2,  we  find  "Howl  ye,  Woe 
worth  the  day  ! "  where  the  imperative  worth  governs  day  in  the 
dative  case.  This  idiom  is  still  found  in  modern  verse,  as  in 
the  well-known  lines  in  the  first  canto  of  the  "Lady  of  the 
Lake":— 

"  Woe  worth  the  chase,  woe  worth  the  day 
That  cost  thy  life,  my  gallant  grey  ! " 


336 


CHAPTEE     V. 


MODERN    ENGLISH. 


1.  Grammar  Fixed. — From  the  date  of  1485 — that  is,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIL — the  changes  in  the 
grammar  or  constitution  of  our  language  are  so  extremely  small, 
that  they  are  hardly  noticeable.  Any  Englishman  of  ordinary 
education  can  read  a  book  belonging  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifteenth  or  to  the  sixteenth  century  without  difficulty.  Since 
that  time  the  grammar  of  our  language  has  hardly  changed  at 
all,  though  we  have  altered  and  enlarged  our  vocabulary,  and 
have  adopted  thousands  of  new  words.  The  introduction  of 
Printing,  the  Kevival  of  Learning,  the  Translation  of  the  Bible, 
the  growth  and  spread  of  the  power  to  read  and  write — these 
and  other  influences  tended  to  fix  the  language  and  to  keep  it 
as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  true  that  we  have  dropped  a  few  old- 
fashioned  endings,  like  the  n  or  en  in  silvern  and  golden; 
but,  so  far  as  form  or  grammar  is  concerned,  the  English  of  the 
sixteenth  and  the  English  of  the  twentieth  centuries  are  sub- 
stantially the  same. 

2.  New  Words. — But,  while  the  grammar  of  English  has 
remained  the  same,  the  vocabulary  of  English  has  been  grow- 
ing, and  growing  rapidly,  not  merely  with  each  century,  but 
with  each  generation.  The  discovery  of  the  'New  World  in 
1492  gave  an  impetus  to  maritime  enterprise  in  England,  which 
it  never  lost,  brought  us  into  connection  with  the  Spaniards, 
and  hence  contributed  to  our  language  several  Spanish  words. 
In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,   Italian  literature 


MODERN   ENGLISH. 


337 


was  largely  read ;  Wyatt  and  Surrey  show  its  influence  in  their 
poems  ;  and  Italian  words  began  to  come  in  in  considerable 
numbers.  Commerce,  too,  has  done  much  for  us  in  this  way; 
and  along  with  the  article  imported,  we  have  in  general  intro- 
duced also  the  name  it  bore  in  its  own  native  country.  In  later 
times,  Science  has  been  making  rapid  strides — has  been  bring- 
ing to  light  new  discoveries  and  new  inventions  almost  every 
week ;  and  along  with  these  new  discoveries,  the  language  has 
been  enriched  with  new  names  and  new  terms.  Let  us  look  a 
little  more  closely  at  the  character  of  these  foreign  contributions 
to  the  vocabulary  of  our  tongue. 

3.  Spanish  Words. — The  words  we  have  received  from  the 
Spanish  language  are  not  numerous,  but  they  are  important. 
In  addition  to  the  ill-fated  word  armada,  we  have  the  Spam 
ish  for  Mr,  which  is  Don  (from  Lat.  dominus,  a  lord),  with  ita 
feminine  Duenna.  They  gave  us  also  alligator,  which  is  oui 
English  way  of  writing  el  lagarto,  the  lizard.  They  also  pre 
sented  us  with  a  large  number  of  words  that  end  in  o — such  as 
buffalo,  cargo,  desperado,  guano,  indigo,  mosquito,  mulatto, 
negro,  potato,  tornado,  and  others.  The  following  is  a  toler- 
ably full  list :— 


Alligator. 

Cork. 

Galleon  (a  ship).  Mulatto. 

Armada. 

Creole. 

Grandee. 

Negro. 

Barricade. 

Desperado. 

Grenade. 

Octoroon. 

Battledore. 

Don. 

Guerilla. 

Quadroon. 

Bravado. 

Duenna. 

Indigo. 

Renegade. 

Buffalo. 

Eldorado. 

Jennet. 

Savannah. 

Cargo. 

Embargo. 

Matador. 

Sherry  ( =  Xeres). 

Cigar. 

Filibuster. 

Merino. 

Tornado. 

Cochineal. 

Flotilla. 

Mosquito. 

Vanilla. 

4.  Italian  Words. — Italian  literature  has  been  read  and 
cultivated  in  England  since  the  time  of  Chaucer  —  since  the 
fourteenth  century ;  and  the  arts  and  artists  of  Italy  have  for 
many  centuries  exerted  a  great  deal  of  influence  on  those  of 
England.  Hence  it  is  that  we  owe  to  the  Italian  language  a 
large  number  of  words.  These  relate  to  poetry,  such  as  canto, 
sonnet,  stanza ;  to  music,  as  pianoforte,  opera,  oratorio, 
soprano,  alto,  contralto ;   to  architecture   and   sculpture,   as 


338 


HISTORY   OF  THE  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


portico,  piazza,  cupola,  torso;  and  to  painting,  as  studio, 
fresco  (an  open-air  painting),  and  others.  The  following  is  a 
list  of  many  words  in  common  use  :— 


Alarm. 

Charlatan. 

Incognito. 

Proviso. 

Alert. 

Citadel. 

Influenza. 

Quarto. 

Alto. 

Colonnade. 

Lagoon. 

Regatta. 

Arcade. 

Concert. 

Lava. 

Ruffian. 

Balcony. 

Contralto. 

Lazaretto. 

Serenade. 

Balustrade. 

Conversazione. 

Macaroni. 

Sonnet. 

Bandit. 

Cornice. 

Madonna. 

Soprano. 

Bankrupt. 

Corridor. 

Madrigal. 

Stanza. 

Bravo. 

Cupola. 

Malaria. 

Stiletto. 

Brigade. 

Curvet. 

Manifesto. 

Stucco. 

Brigand. 

Dilettante. 

Motto. 

Studio. 

Broccoli. 

Ditto. 

Moustache. 

Tenor. 

Burlesque. 

Doge. 

Niche. 

Terra  -cotta. 

Bust. 

Domino. 

Opera. 

Tirade. 

Cameo. 

Extravaganza. 

Oratorio. 

Torso. 

Canteen. 

Fiasco. 

Palette. 

Trombone. 

Canto. 

Folio. 

Pantaloon. 

Umbrella. 

Caprice. 

Fresco. 

Parapet. 

Vermilion. 

Caricature. 

Gazette. 

Pedant. 

Vertu. 

Carnival. 

Gondola. 

Pianoforte. 

Virtuoso. 

Cartoon. 

Granite. 

Piazza. 

Vista. 

Cascade. 

Grotto. 

Pistol. 

Volcano. 

Cavalcade. 

Guitar. 

Portico. 

Zany. 

5.  Dutch  Words. — We  have  had  for  many  centuries  com- 
mercial dealings  with  the  Dutch ;  and  as  they,  like  ourselves, 
are  a  great  seafaring  people,  they  have  given  us  a  number 
of  words  relating  to  the  management  ot  ships.  In  the  four- 
teenth cfentury,  the  southern  part  of  the  German  Ocean  was 
the  most  frequented  sea  in  the  world;  and  the  chances  of 
plunder  were  so  great  that  ships  of  war  had  to  keep  cruising 
up  and  down  to  protect  the  trading  vessels  that  sailed  between 
England  and  the  Low  Countries.  The  following  are  the  words 
which  we  owe  to  the  Netherlands  : — 

Ballast.  Luff.  Sloop.  Trigger. 

Boom.  Reef.  Smack.  Wear  (said  of  a 

Boor.  Schiedam  (gin).  Smuggle.  ship). 

Burgomaster.  Skates.  Stiver.  Yacht 

Hoy.  Skipper.  TaffraiL  YawL 


MODERN  ENGLISH. 


339 


6.  French  Words.  —  Besides  the  large  additions  to  our 
language  made  by  the  Norman-French,  we  have  from  time  to 
time  imported  direct  from  France  a  number  of  French  words, 
without  change  in  the  spelling,  and  with  little  change  in  the 
pronunciation  The  French  have  been  for  centuries  the  most 
polished  nation  in  Europe;  from  France  the  changing  fashions 
in  dress  spread  over  all  the  countries  of  the  Continent ;  French 
literature  has  been  much  read  in  England  since  the  time  of 
Charles  II. ;  and  for  a  long  time  all  diplomatic  correspondence 
between  foreign  countries  and  England  was  carried  on  in  French. 
Words  relating  to  manners  and  customs  are  common,  such  as 
soiree,  etiquette,  seance,  elite ;  and  we  have  also  the  names  of 
things  which  were  invented  in  France,  such  as  mitrailleuse, 
carte-de-visite,  coup  d'etat,  and  others.  Some  of  these  words 
are,  in  spelling,  exactly  like  English  \  and  advantage  of  this  has 
been  taken  in  a  well-known  epigram  : — 

The  French  have  taste  in  all  they  do, 

Which  we  are  quite  without ; 
For  Nature,  which  to  them  gave  gout,1 

To  us  gave  only  gout. 

The   following  is  a  list   of   French  words  which   have   been 
imported  in  comparatively  recent  times : — 


Aide-de-camp. 

Carte-de-visite. 

Etiquette. 

Personnel. 

Belle. 

Coup-d'e*tat. 

Facade. 

Precis. 

Bivouac. 

Debris. 

Gout. 

Programme. 

Blonde. 

DeT>ut 

Naive. 

Protege". 

Bouquet. 

De'jeuner. 

Naivete*. 

Recherche". 

Brochure. 

Depot. 

Nonchalance. 

Stance. 

Brunette. 

Eclat. 

Outre*. 

Soiree. 

Brusque. 

Ennui. 

Penchant. 

Trousseau. 

The  Scotch  have  always  had  a  closer  connection  with  the  French 
nation  than  England ;  and  hence  we  find  in  the  Scottish  dialect 
of  English  a  number  of  French  words  that  are  not  used  in  South 
Britain  at  all.  A  leg  of  mutton  is  called  in  Scotland  a  gigot ; 
the  dish  on  which  it  is  laid  is  an  ashet  (from  assiette) ;  a  cup 
for  tea  or  for  wine  is  a  tassie  (from  tasse) ;  the  gate  of  a  town  is 

1  OoUt  (goo)  from  Latin  gustus,  taste 


3±u 


HISTOKY   OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


called  the  port ;  and  a  stubborn  person  is  dour  (Fr.  dur,  from 
Lat.  durus) ;  while  a  gentle  and  amiable  person  is  douce  (Fr. 
douce,  Lat.  dulcis). 

7.  German  Words. — It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  English  is 
a  Low-German  dialect,  while  the  German  of  books  is  New  High- 
German.  We  have  never  borrowed  directly  from  High-German, 
because  we  have  never  needed  to  borrow.  Those  modern  Ger- 
man words  that  have  come  into  our  language  in  recent  times  are 
chiefly  the  names  of  minerals,  with  a  few  striking  exceptions, 
such  as  loafer,  which  came  to  us  from  the  German  immigrants 
to  the  United  States,  and  plunder,  which  seems  to  have  been 
brought  from  Germany  by  English  soldiers  who  had  served  under 
Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  following  are  the  German  words 
which  we  have  received  in  recent  times  : — 


Cobalt. 

Landgrave. 

Meerschaum. 

Poodle. 

Felspar. 

Loafer. 

Nickel. 

Quartz. 

Hornblende. 

Margrave. 

Plunder. 

Zinc. 

8.  Hebrew  Words. — These,  with  very  few  exceptions,  have 
come  to  us  from  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  is  now  in 
use  in  our  homes  and  churches.  Abbot  and  abbey  come  from 
the  Hebrew  word  abba,  father ;  and  such  words  as  cabal  and 
Talmud,  though  not  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  have  been 
contributed  by  Jewish  literature.  The  following  is  a  tolerably 
complete  list : — 


Abbey. 

Cinnamon. 

Leviathan. 

Sabbath. 

Abbot. 

Hallelujah. 

Manna. 

Sadducees. 

Amen. 

Hosannah. 

PaschaL 

Satan. 

Behemoth. 

Jehovah. 

Pharisee. 

Seraph. 

Cabal. 

Jubilee. 

Pharisaical. 

Shibboleth. 

Cherub. 

Gehenna. 

Rabbi. 

Talmud. 

9.  Other  Foreign  Words.— The  English  have  always  been 
the  greatest  travellers  in  the  world;  and  our  sailors  always 
the  most  daring,  intelligent,  and  enterprising.  There  is  hardly 
a  port  or  a  country  in  the  world  into  which  an  English  ship  has 
not  penetrated  ;  and  our  commerce  has  now  been  maintained  for 
centuries  with  every  people  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  We 
exchange  goods  with  almost  every  nation  and  tribe  under  the 


MODERN    ENGLISH. 


341 


sun.  When  we  import  articles  or  produce  from  abroad,  we  in 
general  import  the  native  name  along  with  the  thing.  Hence 
it  is  that  we  have  guano,  maize,  and  tomato  from  the  two 
Americas;  coffee,  cotton,  and  tamarind  from  Arabia;  tea, 
congou,  and  nankeen  from  China ;  calico,  chintz,  and  rupee 
from  Hindostan ;  bamboo,  gamboge,  and  sago  from  the  Malay 
Peninsula ;  lemon,  musk,  and  orange  from  Persia  ;  boomerang 
and  kangaroo  from  Australia;  chibouk,  ottoman,  and  tulip 
from  Turkey.  The  following  are  lists  of  these  foreign  words ; 
and  they  are  worth  examining  with  the  greatest  minuteness : — 


African  Dialects. 

Baobab. 

Gnu. 

Karoo. 

Quagga. 

Canary. 

Gorilla. 

Kraal. 

Zebra. 

Chimpanzee. 

Guinea. 

Oasis. 

American  Tongues. 

Alpaca. 

Condor. 

Maize. 

PiACoon. 

Buccaneer. 

Guano. 

Manioc. 

Skunk. 

Cacique. 

Hammock. 

Moccasin. 

Squaw. 

Cannibal. 

Jaguar. 

Mustang. 

Tapioca. 

Canoe. 

Jalap. 

Opossum. 

Tobacco. 

Caoutchouc. 

Jerked  (beef). 

Pampas. 

Tomahawk. 

Cayman. 

Llama. 

Pemmican. 

Tomato. 

Chocolate. 

Mahogany. 

Potato. 

Wigwam. 

Arabic 

(The  word  al  means  the. 

Thus  dXcohcl—  the 

spirit.) 

Admiral  (Milton 

Azure. 

Harem. 

Salaam. 

writes       am- 

Caliph. 

Hookah 

Senna. 

vtiral. 

Carat. 

Koran  (or  Al- 

Sherbet. 

Alcohol. 

Chemistry. 

coran). 

Shrub  (the 

Alcove. 

Cipher 

Lute. 

drink). 

Alembic. 

Civet 

Magazine. 

Simoom. 

Algebra. 

Coffee. 

Mattress. 

Sirocco. 

Alkali.- 

Cotton. 

Minaret. 

Sofa. 

Amber. 

Crimson. 

Mohair. 

Sultan. 

Arrack. 

Dragoman. 

Monsoon. 

Syrup. 

Arsenal. 

Elixir. 

Mosque. 

Talisman. 

Artichoke. 

Emir. 

Mufti. 

Tamarind. 

Assassin. 

Fakir. 

Nabob. 

Tariff. 

Assegai 

Felucca. 

Nadir. 

Vizier. 

Attar. 

Gazelle. 

Naphtha. 

Zenith. 

Azimuth. 

Giraffe. 

Saffron. 

Zero. 

342 


HISTORY    OF   THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 


Chinese. 

Bohea. 

Hyson.                    Nankeen. 

Souchong. 

China. 

Joss.                         Pekoe. 

Tea. 

Congou. 

Junk.                        Silk. 
Hindu. 

Typhoon. 

Avatar. 

Cowrie.                    Pagoda. 

Ryot. 

Banyan. 

Durbar.                   Palanquin. 

Sepoy. 

Brahmin. 

Jungle.-                    Pariah. 

Shampoo. 

Bungalow. 

Lac  (of  rupees).      Punch. 

Sugar, 

Calico. 

Loot.                        Pundit. 

Suttee. 

Chintz. 

Mulligatawny.        Rajah. 

Thug. 

Coolie. 

Musk,                     Rupee. 
Hungarian 

Toddy. 

Hussar. 

Sabre.                      Shako. 
Malay. 

Tokay. 

Amuck. 

Cassowary.              Gong. 

Orang-outang. 

Bamboo. 

Cockatoo.                 Gutta-percha. 

Rattan. 

Bantam. 

Dugong.                   Mandarin. 

Sago. 

Caddy. 

Gamboge.                Mango. 
Persian. 

Upas. 

Awning. 

Dervish.                  Jasmine. 

Pasha. 

Bazaar. 

Divan.                     Lac  (a  gum). 

Rook. 

Bashaw. 

Firman.                   Lemon. 

Saraband. 

Caravan. 

Hazard.                   Lilac. 

Sash. 

Check. 

Horde.                     Lime  (the  fruit). 

Scimitar. 

Checkmate. 

Houri.                      Musk. 

Shawl. 

Chess. 

Jar.                           Orange. 

Taffeta. 

Curry. 

JackaL                     Paradise. 
Polynesian  Dialects. 

Turban. 

Boomerang. 

Kangaroo.               Taboo. 
Portuguese. 

Tattoo. 

Albatross. 

Cocoa-nut.              Lasso. 

Molasses. 

Caste. 

Commodore.           Marmalade. 

Palaver. 

Cobra. 

Fetish.                     Moidore. 

Russian. 

Port  (  =  Oporto) 

Czar. 

Knout.                    Rouble. 

Ukase. 

Drosky. 

Morse.                    Steppe. 

Tartar. 
Khan. 

Turkish. 

Verst. 

Bey. 

Chouse.                   Kiosk. 

Tulip. 

Caftan. 

Dey.                        Odalisque. 

Yashmak. 

Chibouk. 

Janissary.               Ottoman. 

Yataghan. 

MODERN  ENGLISH.  343 

10.  Scientific  Terms. — A  very  large  number  of  discoveries 
in  science  have  been  made  in  this  century ;  and  a  large  number 
of  inventions  have  introduced  these  discoveries  to  the  people, 
and  made  them  useful  in  daily  life.  Thus  we  have  telegraph 
and  telegram ;  photograph ;  telephone  and  even  ph otophone. 
The  word  dynamite  is  also  modern ;  and  the  unhappy  employ- 
ment of  it  has  made  it  too  widely  known.  Then  passing 
fashions  have  given  us  such  words  as  athlete  and  aesthete.  In 
general,  it  may  be  said  that,  when  we  wish  to  give  a  name  to  a 
new  thing — a  new  discovery,  invention,  or  fashion — we  have 
recourse  not  to  our  own  stores  of  English,  but  to  the  vocabu- 
laries of  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages. 


344 


LANDMARKS    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    THE 
ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 

A.D. 

1.  The  Beowulf,  an  old  English  epic,  "  written  on  the  mainland  "      450 

2.  Christianity  introduced  by  St  Augustine  (and  with  it  many 

Latin  and  a  few  Greek  words)  ....         596 

3.  Caedmon — '  Paraphrase  of  the  Scriptures,' — first  English  poem     670 

4.  Baeda — "  The  Venerable  Bede  M — translated  into  English  part 

of  St  John's  Gospel 735 

5.  King  Alfred    translated   several    Latin  works    into    English, 

among  others,   Bede's  'Ecclesiastical  History  of   the  Eng- 
lish Nation'.  .....      (849)         901 

6.  Aelfric,  called  Grammaticus,  turned  into   English  most  of  the 

historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament  .  floruit      1006 

7.  The    Norman    Conquest,    which   introduced    Norman    French 

words  .......      1066 

8.  Anglo-Saxon    Chronicle,   said   to   have  been   begun   by  King 

Alfred,  and  brought  to  a  close  in       ....     1154 

9.  Orm  or  Orrmin's  Ormulum,  a  poem  written  in  "the  East  Mid- 

land dialect,  about    .  .  .  .  .  .      1200 

10.  Normandy  lost  under  King  John.     Norman -English  now  have 

their  only  home  in  England,  and  use  our  English  speech 
more  and  more  ......      1204 

11.  Layamon  translates  the  '  Brut '  from  the  French  of  Robert 

Wace.     This  is  the  first  English  book  (written  in  Southern 
English)  after  the  stoppage  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  .      1205 

12.  The  Ancren  Riwle  ("Rules  for  Anchorites")  written  in  the 

Dorsetshire  dialect.     "It  is  the  forerunner  of  a  wondrous 
change  in  our  speech."     "  It  swarms  with  French  words  "        1220 

13.  First  Royal  Proclamation  in  English,  issued  by  Henry  III.  .      1258 

14.  Robert  of  Gloucester's  Chronicle  (swarms  with  foreign  terms)    1300 


LANDMARKS   IN   HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LANGUAGE.      345 

15.  Robert  Manning,  "  Robert  of  Brunn,"  compiles  the  '  Handlyng 

Synne.'  "It  contains  a  most  copious  proportion  of  French 
words"  ......      1303 

16.  Ayenbite  of  Inwit  ( = "  Remorse  of  Conscience  ")        .  .      1340 

17.  The  Great  Plague.     After  this  it  becomes  less  and  less  the 

fashion  to  speak  French        .....      1349 

18.  Sir  John  Mandeville,  first  writer  of  the  newer  English  Prose — 

in  his  '  Travels,'  which  contained  a  large  admixture  of  French 
words.  "  His  English  is  the  speech  spoken  at  Court  in  the 
latter  days  of  King  Edward  III."     ....     1372 

19.  English  becomes  the  language  of  the  Law  Courts       .  .      1362 

20.  Wickliffe's  Bible 1380 

21.  Geoffrey  Chancer,  the  first  great  English  poet,  author  of  the 

'  Canterbury  Tales ' ;  born  about  1340,  died  .  .      1400 

22.  William  Caxton,  the  first  English  printer,  brings  out  (in  the 

Low  Countries)  the  first  English  book  ever  printed,  the 
'Recuyell  of  the  Historyes  of  Troye,'— "not  written  with 
pen  and  4nk,  as  other  books  are,  to  the  end  that  every  man 
may  have  them  at  once"       .....      1474 

23.  First  English  Book  printed  in  England  (by   Caxton),    "The 

Dictes  and  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers  "       .  .  .1477 

24.  Lord  Berners'  translation  of  Froissart's  Chronicle       .  .1523 

25.  William  Tyndale,  by  his  translation  of  the  Bible  "fixed  our 

tongue  once  for  all. "  "  His  New  Testament  has  become  the 
standard  of  our  tongue :  the  first  ten  verses  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel  are  a  good  sample  of  his  manly  Teutonic  pith  "       1525-31 

26.  Edmund  Spenser  publishes  his  '  Faerie  Queene.'     "  Now  began 

the  golden  age  of  England's  literature  ;  and  this  age  was  to 

last  for  about  fourscore  years "        .  .  .  .1590 

27.  Our  English   Bible,   based   chiefly  on   Tyndale's  translation. 

"Those  who  revised  the  English  Bible  in  1611  were  bidden 
to  keep  as  near  as  they  could  to  the  old  versions,  such  as 
Tyndale's"   .......       1611 

28.  William  Shakespeare  carried  the  use  of  the  English  language 

to  the  greatest  height  of  which  it  was  capable.  He  employed 
15,000  words.  "  The  last  act  of  '  Othello '  is  a  rare  specimen  of 
Shakespeare's  diction :  of  every  five  nouns,  verbs,  and  adverbs, 
four  are  Teutonic  "...  (Born  1564)  1616 

29.  John  Milton,  "the  most  learned  of  English  poets,"  publishes 

his '  Paradise  Lost,' — "  a  poem  in  which  Latin  words  are  intro- 
duced with  great  skill  ".....      1667 


346  HISTORY  OF  THE   ENGLISH   LANGUAGE. 

30.  The  Prayer-Book  revised  and  issued  in  its  final  form,     "  Are 

was  substituted  for  be  in  forty-three  places.  This  was  a 
great  victory  of  the  North  over  the  South  "  .  .1661 

31.  John   Bunyan  writes  his  '  Pilgrim's  Progress  ' — a  book  full  of 

pithy  English  idiom.      "  The  common  folk  had  the  wit  at 
once  to  see  the   worth  of  Bunyan's  masterpiece,  and  the 
learned  long  afterwards  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  common  ■ 
folk '.....  (Born  1628)  1678 

32.  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  the  author  of '  Urn-Burial '  and  other  works 

written  in  a  highly  Latinised  diction,  such  as  the  '  Religio 
Medici,'  written       ......      1642 

33.  Dr  Samuel  Johnson  was  the  chief  supporter  of  the  use  of 

"long-tailed  words  in  osity  and  ation,"  such  as  his  novel 
called  '  Rasselas,'  published  .  .  .  .1759 

34.  Tennyson,  Poet-Laureate,  a  writer  of  the  best  English — "a 

countryman  of  Robert  Manning's,  and  a  careful  student  of 
old  Malory,  did  much  for  the  revival  of  pure  English 
among  us"       .  .  .  .  .  .    1809-1892 


PAKT    IV. 

OUTLTISTE  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 


349 


CHAPTEK   I. 

OUR   OLDEST   ENGLISH    LITERATURE. 

1.  Literature. — The  history  of  English  Literature  is,  in  its 
external  aspect,  an  account  of  the  best  books  in  prose  and  in 
verse  that  have  been  written  by  English  men  and  English 
women;  and  this  account  begins  with  a  poem  brought  over 
from  the  Continent  by  our  countrymen  in  the  fifth  century,  and 
comes  down  to  the  time  in  which  we  live.  It  covers,  therefore, 
a  period  of  over  fourteen  hundred  years. 

2.  The  Distribution  of  Literature. — We  must  not  suppose 
that  literature  has  always  existed  in  the  form  of  printed  books. 
Literature  is  a  living  thing — a  living  outcome  of  the  living 
mind;  and  there  are  many  ways  in  which  it  has  been  dis- 
tributed to  other  human  beings.  The  oldest  way  is,  of  course, 
by  one  person  repeating  a  poem  or  other  literary  composition 
he  has  made  to  another;  and  thus  literature  is  stored  away, 
not  upon  book  -  shelves,  but  in  the  memory  of  living  men. 
Homer's  poems  are  said  to  have  been  preserved  in  this  way 
to  the  Greeks  for  five  hundred  years.  Father  chanted  them 
to  son ;  the  sons  to  their  sons ;  and  so  on  from  generation  to 
generation.  The  next  way  of  distributing  literature  is  by  the 
aid  of  signs  called  letters  made  upon  leaves,  flattened  reeds, 
parchment,  or  the  inner  bark  of  trees.  The  next  is  by  the 
help  of  writing  upon  paper.  The  last  is  by  the  aid  of  type 
upon  paper.  This  has  existed  in  England  for  more  than  four 
hundred  years — since  the  year  1477 ;  and  thus  it  is  that  our 
libraries  contain  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  valuable  books. 

2b 


350  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

For  the  same  reason  is  it,  most  probably,  that  as  our  power  of 
retaining  the  substance  and  multiplying  the  copies  of  books  has 
grown  stronger,  our  living  memories  have  grown  weaker.  This 
defect  can  be  remedied  only  by  education — that  is,  by  training 
the  memories  of  the  young.  While  we  possess  so  many  printed 
books,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  many  valuable  works  exist 
still  in  manuscript — written  either  upon  paper  or  on  parchment. 
3.  Verse,  the  earliest  form  of  Literature. — It  is  a  remarkable 
fact  that  the  earliest  kind  of  composition  in  all  languages  is  in 
the  form  of  Verse.  The  oldest  books,  too,  are  those  which  are 
written  in  verse.  Thus  Homer's  poems  are  the  oldest  literary 
work  of  Greece ;  the  Sagas  are  the  oldest  productions  of  Scan- 
dinavian literature ;  and  the  Beowulf  is  the  oldest  piece  of 
literature  produced  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  It  is  also  from 
the  strong  creative  power  and  the  lively  inventions  of  poets 
that  we  are  even  now  supplied  with  new  thoughts  and  new 
language — that  the  most  vivid  words  and  phrases  come  into  the 
language ;  just  as  it  is  the  ranges  of  high  mountains  that  send 
down  to  the  plains  the  ever  fresh  soil  that  gives  to  them  their 
unending  fertility.  And  thus  it  happens  that  our  present  Eng- 
lish speech  is  full  of  words  and  phrases  that  have  found  their 
way  into  the  most  ordinary  conversation  from  the  writings  of  our 
great  poets — and  especially  from  the  writings  of  our  greatest 
poet,  Shakespeare.  The  fact  that  the  life  of  prose  depends 
for  its  supplies  on  the  creative  minds  of  poets  has  been  well 
expressed  by  an  American  writer  : — 

"  I  looked  upon  a  plain  of  green, 

Which  some  one  called  the  Land  of  Prose, 
Where  many  living  things  were  seen 
In  movement  or  repose. 

I  looked  upon  a  stately  hill 

That  well  was  named  the  Mount  of  Song, 

Where  golden  shadows  dwelt  at  will, 
The  woods  and  streams  among. 

But  most  this  fact  my  wonder  bred 
(Though  known  by  all  the  nobly  wise), 

It  was  the  mountain  stream  that  fed 
That  fair  green  plain's  amenities." 


OUR  OLDEST   ENGLISH    LITERATURE.  351 

4.  Our  oldest  English  Poetry. — The  verse  written  by  our 
old  English  writers  was  very  different  in  form  from  the  verse 
as  it  appears  in  the  writings  of  Tennyson,  or  Browning,  or 
Matthew  Arnold.  The  old  English  or  Anglo-Saxon  writers 
used  a  kind  of  rhyme  called  head -rhyme  or  alliteration; 
while,  from  the  fourteenth  century  downwards,  our  poets  have 
always  employed  end-rhyme  in  their  verses. 

"Zightly  down  Zeaping  he  Zoosened  his  helmet." 

Such  was  the  rough  old  English  form.  At  least  three  words 
in  each  long  line  were  alliterative — two  in  the  first  half,  and 
one  in  the  second.  Metaphorical  phrases  were  common,  such 
as  war-adder  for  arrow,  war-shirts  for  armour,  ichale's-path  or 
swan-road  for  the  sea,  wave-horse  for  a  ship,  tree-wHglit  for 
carpenter.  Different  statements  of  the  same  fact,  different 
phrases  for  the  same  thing — what  are  called  parallelisms  in 
Hebrew  poetry — as  in  the  line — 

"Then  saw  they  the  sea  head-lands — the  windy  walls," 

were  also  in  common  use  among  our  oldest  English  poets. 

5.  Beowulf.  —  The  Beowulf  is  the  oldest  poem  in  the 
English  language.  It  is  our  "  old  English  epic " ;  and,  like 
much  of  our  ancient  verse,  it  is  a  war  poem.  The  author  of 
it  is  unknown.  It  was  probably  composed  in  the  fifth  century 
— not  in  England,  but  on  the  Continent — and  brought  over  to 
this  island — not  on  paper  or  on  parchment — but  in  the  mem- 
ories of  the  old  Jutish  or  Saxon  vikings  or  warriors.  It  was 
not  written  down  at  all,  even  in  England,  till  the  end  of  the 
ninth  century,  and  then,  probably,  by  a  monk  of  Northum- 
bria.  It  tells  among  other  things  the  story  of  how  Beowulf 
sailed  from  Sweden  to  the  help  of  Hrothgar,  a  king  in  Jut- 
land,  whose  life  was  made  miserable  by  a  monster — half  man, 
half  fiend — named  Grendel.  For  about  twelve  years  this  mon- 
ster had  been  in  the  habit  of  creeping  up  to  the  banqueting- 
hall  of  King  Hrothgar,  seizing  upon  his  thanes,  carrying  them 
off,  and  devouring  them.  Beowulf  attacks  and  overcomes  the 
dragon,  which  is  mortally  wounded,  and  flees  away  to  die.    The 


352  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

poem  belongs  both  to  the  German  and  to  the  English  literature; 
for  it  is  written  in  a  Continental  English,  which  is  somewhat 
different  from  the  English  of  our  own  island.  But  its  literary 
shape  is,  as  has  been  said,  due  to  a  Christian  writer  of  North- 
umbria ;  and  therefore  its  written  or  printed  form — as  it  exists 
at  present — is  not  German,  but  English.  Parts  of  this  poem 
were  often  chanted  at  the  feasts  of  warriors,  where  all  sang  in 
turn  as  they  sat  after  dinner  over  their  cups  of  mead  round  the 
massive  oaken  table.  The  poem  consists  of  3184  lines,  the 
rhymes  of  which  are  solely  alliterative. 

6.  The  First  Native  English  Poem. — The  Beowulf  came  to 
us  from  the  Continent ;  the  first  native  English  poem  was  pro- 
duced in  Yorkshire.  On  the  dark  wind-swept  cliff  which  rises 
above  the  little  land-locked  harbour  of  "Whitby,  stand  the  ruins 
of  an  ancient  and  once  famous  abbey.  The  head  of  this  re- 
ligious house  was  the  Abbess  Hild  or  Hilda  :  and  there  was  a 
secular  priest  in  it, — a  very  shy  retiring  man,  who  looked  after 
the  cattle  of  the  monks,  and  whose  name  was  Caedmon.  To 
this  man  came  the  gift  of  song,  but  somewhat  late  in  life. 
And  it  came  in  this  wise.  One  night,  after  a  feast,  singing 
began,  and  each  of  those  seated  at  the  table  was  to  sing  in  his 
turn.  Caedmon  was  very  nervous — felt  he  could  not  sing. 
Fear  overcame  his  heart,  and  he  stole  quietly  away  from  the 
table  before  the  turn  could  come  to  him.  He  crept  off  to 
the  cowshed,  lay  down  on  the  straw  and  fell  asleep.  He 
dreamed  a  dream;  and,  in  his  dream,  there  came  to  him  a 
voice  :  "  Caedmon,  sing  me  a  song  ! "  But  Caedmon  answered  : 
"I  cannot  sing;  it  was  for  this  cause  that  I  had  to  leave 
the  feast."  "  But  you  must  and  shall  sing  ! "  "  What  must  I 
sing,  then  1 "  he  replied.  "  Sing  the  beginning  of  created 
things ! "  said  the  vision ;  and  forthwith  Caedmon  sang  some 
lines  in  his  sleep,  about  God  and  the  creation  of  the  world. 
When  he  awoke,  he  remembered  some  of  the  lines  that  had 
come  to  him  in  sleepf  and,  being  brought  before  Hilda,  he 
recited  them  to  her.  The  Abbess  thought  that  this  wonderful 
gift,  which  had  come  to  him  so  suddenly,  must  have  come  from 
God,  received  him  into  the  monastery,  made  him  a  monk,  and 


OUR  OLDEST  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  353 

had  him  taught  sacred  history.  "  All  this  Caedmon,  by  re- 
membering, and,  like  a  clean  animal,  ruminating,  .turned  into 
sweetest  verse."  His  poetical  works  consist  of  a  metrical  para- 
phrase of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  It  was  written 
about  the  year  670 ;  and  he  died  in  680.  It  was  read  and 
re-read  in  manuscript  for  many  centuries,  but  it  was  not  printed 
in  a  book  until  the  year  1655. 

7.  The  War-Poetry  of  England. — There  were  many  poems 
about  battles,  written  both  in  Northumbria  and  in  the  south 
of  England ;  but  it  was  only  in  the  south  that  these  war-songs 
were  committed  to  writing ;  and  of  these  written  songs  there  are 
only  two  that  survive  up  to  the  present  day.  These  are  the 
Song  of  Brunanburg,  and  the  Song  of  the  Fight  at  Maldon. 
The  first  belongs  to  the  date  938;  the  second  to  991.  The 
Song  of  Brunanburg  was  inscribed  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle — 
a  current  narrative  of  events,  written  chiefly  by  monks,  from  the 
ninth  century  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Stephen.  The  song 
tells  the  story  of  the  fight  of  King  Athelstan  with  Anlaf  the 
Dane.  It  tells  how  five  young  kings  and  seven  earls  of 
Anlaf  s  host  fell  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  lay  there  "  quieted 
by  swords,"  while  their  fellow-Northmen  fled,  and  left  their 
friends  and  comrades  to  "the  screamers  of  war — the  black  raven, 
the  eagle,  the  greedy  battle-hawk,  and  the  grey  wolf  in  the 
wood."  The  Song  of  the  Fight  at  Maldon  tells  us  of  the 
heroic  deeds  and  death  of  Byrhtnoth,  an  ealdorman  of  North- 
umbria,  in  battle  against  the  Danes  at  Maldon,  in  Essex. 
The  speeches  of  the  chiefs  are  given ;  the  single  combats  between 
heroes  described ;  and,  as  in  Homer,  the  names  and  genealogies 
of  the  foremost  men  are  brought  into  the  verse. 

8.  The  First  English  Prose.— The  first  writer  of  English 
prose  was  Baeda,  or,  as  he  is  generally  called,  the  Venerable 
Bede.  He  was  born  in  the  year  672  at  Monkwearmouth,  a 
small  town  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Wear,  and  was,  like 
Caedmon,  a  native  of  the  kingdom  of  Northumbria.  He 
spent  most  of  his  life  at  the  famous  monastery  of  Jarrow-on* 
Tyne.  He  spent  his  life  in  writing.  His  works,  which  were 
written  in  Latin,  rose  to  the  number  of  forty-five ;  his  chief 


354  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

work  being  an  Ecclesiastical  History.  But  though  Latin 
was  the  tongue  in  which  he  wrote  his  books,  he  wrote  one  book 
in  English ;  and  he  may  therefore  be  fairly  considered  the  first 
writer  of  English  prose.  This  book  was  a  Translation  of  the 
G-ospel  of  St  John — a  work  which  he  laboured  at  until  tho 
very  moment  of  his  death.  His  disciple  Cuthbert  tells  the 
story  of  his  last  hours.  "  Write  quickly ! "  said  Baeda  to  his 
scribe,  for  he  felt  that  his  end  could  not  be  far  off.  When  the 
last  day  came,  all  his  scholars  stood  around  his  bed.  "  There 
is  still  one  chapter  wanting,  Master,"  said  the  scribe ;  "  it  is 
hard  for  thee  to  think  and  to  speak."  "  It  must  be  done,"  said 
Baeda;  "  take  thy  pen  and  write  quickly."  So  through  the  long 
day  they  wrote — scribe  succeeding  scribe ;  and  when  the  shades 
of  evening  were  coming  on,  the  young  writer  looked  up  from 
his  task  and  said,  "  There  is  yet  one  sentence  to  write,  dear 
Master."  "  Write  it  quickly  ! "  Presently  the  writer,  looking 
up  with  joy,  said,  "  It  is  finished !  "  "  Thou  sayest  truth," 
replied  the  weary  old  man;  "it  is  finished:  all  is  finished." 
Quietly  he  sank  back  upon  his  pillow,  and,  with  a  psalm  of 
praise  upon  his  lips,  gently  yielded  up  to  God  his  latest  breath. 
It  is  a  great  pity  that  this  translation  —  the  first  piece  of 
prose  in  our  language — is  utterly  lost.  No  MS.  of  it  is  at 
present  known  to  be  in  existence. 

9.  The  Father  of  English  Prose. — For  several  centuries,  up 
to  the  year  866,  the  valleys  and  shores  of  Northumbria  were 
the  homes  of  learning  and  literature.  But  a  change  was  not 
long  in  coming.  Horde  after  horde  of  Danes  swept  down  upon 
the  coasts,  ravaged  the  monasteries,  burnt  the  books — after 
stripping  the  beautiful  bindings  of  the  gold,  silver,  and  precious 
stones  which  decorated  them — killed  or  drove  away  the  monks, 
and  made  life,  property,  and  thought  insecure  all  along  that  once 
peaceful  and  industrious  coast.  Literature,  then,  was  forced 
to  desert  the  monasteries  of  Northumbria,  and  to  seek  for  a 
home  in  the  south — in  Wessex,  the  kingdom  over  which  Alfred 
the  Great  reigned  for  more  than  thirty  years.  The  capital  of 
Wessex    was    Winchester ;    and    an   able    writer   says :    "As 


OUR  OLDEST  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.        355 

Whitby  is  the  cradle  of  English  poetry,  so  is  Winchester  of 
English  prose."  King  Alfred  founded  colleges,  invited  to 
England  men  of  learning  from  abroad,  and  presided  over  a 
school  for  the  sons  of  his  nobles  in  his  own  Court.  He  himself 
wrote  many  books,  or  rather,  he  translated  the  most  famous 
Latin  books  of  his  time  into  English.  He  translated  into  the 
English  of  Wessex,  for  example,  the  *  Ecclesiastical  History' 
of  Baeda;  the  'History  of  Orosius,'  into  which  he  inserted 
geographical  chapters  of  his  own;  and  the  'Consolations  of 
Philosophy,'  by  the  famous  Eoman  writer,  Boethius.  In  these 
books  he  gave  to  his  people,  in  their  own  tongue,  the  best 
existing  works  on  history,  geography,  and  philosophy. 

10.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle. — The  greatest  prose-work 
of  the  oldest  English,  or  purely  Saxon,  literature,  is  a  work — 
not  by  one  person,  but  by  several  authors.  It  is  the  historical 
work  which  is  known  as  The  Saxon  Chronicle.  It  seems  to 
have  been  begun  about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  j  and 
it  was  continued,  with  breaks  now  and  then,  down  to  1154 — 
the  year  of  the  death  of  Stephen  and  the  accession  of  Henry  IL 
It  was  written  by  a  series  of  successive  writers,  all  of  whom 
were  monks ;  but  Alfred  himself  is  said  to  have  contributed  to 
it  a  narrative  of  his  own  wars  with  the  Danes.  The  Chronicle 
is  found  in  seven  separate  forms,  each  named  after  the  monas- 
tery in  which  it  was  written.  It  was  the  newspaper,  the 
annals,  and  the  history  of  the  nation.  "  It  is  the  first  history 
of  any  Teutonic  people  in  their  own  language  ;  it  is  the  earliest 
and  most  venerable  monument  of  English  pvose."  This  Chron- 
icle possesses  for  us  a  twofold  value.  It  is  a  valuable  store- 
house of  historical  facts ;  and  it  is  also  a  storehouse  of  speci- 
mens of  the  different  states  of  the  English  language — as  regards 
both  words  and  grammar  —  from  the  eighth  down  to  the 
twelfth  century. 

11.  Layamon's  Brut. — Layamon  was  a  native  of  Worcester- 
shire, and  a  priest  of  Emley  on  the  Severn.  He  translated, 
about  the  year  1205,  a  poem  called  Brut,  from  the  French  of 
a  monkish  writer  named  Master  Wace.     Wace's  work  itself  is 


356  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

little  more  than  a  translation  of  parts  of  a  famous  "  Chronicle 
or  History  of  the  Britons,"  written  in  Latin  by  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth,  who  was  Bishop  of  St  Asaph  in  1152.  But 
Geoffrey  himself  professed  only  to  have  translated  from  a  chron- 
icle in  the  British  or  Celtic  tongue,  called  the  "  Chronicle  of  the 
Kings  of  Britain,"  which  was  found  in  Brittany — long  the  home 
of  most  of  the  stories,  traditions,  and  fables  about  the  old  Brit- 
ish Kings  and  their  great  deeds.  Layamon's  poem  called  the 
"  Brut "  is  a  metrical  chronicle  of  Britain  from  the  landing  of 
Brutus  to  the  death  of  King  Cadwallader,  about  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century.  Brutus  was  supposed  to  be  a  great-grandson 
of  iEneas,  who  sailed  west  and  west  till  he  came  to  Great 
Britain,  where  he  settled  with  his  followers. — This  metrical 
chronicle  is  written  in  the  dialect  of  the  West  of  England ;  and 
it  shows  everywhere  a  breaking  down  of  the  grammatical  forms 
of  the  oldest  English,  as  we  find  it  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chron- 
icle. In  fact,  between  the  landing  of  the  Normans  and  the 
fourteenth  century,  two  things  may  be  noted  :  first,  that  during 
this  time — that  is,  for  three  centuries — the  inflections  of  the 
oldest  English  are  gradually  and  surely  stripped  off;  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  there  is  little  or  no  original  English  literature  given 
to  the  country,  but  that  by  far  the  greater  part  consists  chiefly 
of  translations  from  French  or  from  Latin. 

12.  Orm's  Ormulum. — Less  than  half  a  century  after  Lay- 
amon's Brut  appeared  a  poem  called  the  Ormulum,  by  a  monk 
of  the  name  of  Orm  or  Ormin.  It  was  probably  written 
about  the  year  1200.  Orm  was  a  monk  of  the  order  of  St 
Augustine,  and  his  book  consists  of  a  series  of  religious  poems. 
It  is  the  oldest,  purest,  and  most  valuable  specimen  of  thirteenth- 
century  English,  and  it  is  also  remarkable  for  its  peculiar 
spelling.  It  is  written  in  the  purest  English,  and  not  five 
French  words  are  to  be  found  in  the  whole  poem  of  twenty 
thousand  short  lines.  Orm,  in  his  spelling,  doubles  every  con- 
sonant that  has  a  short  vowel  before  it ;  and  he  writes  pann  for 
pan,  but  pan  for  pane.  The  following  is  a  specimen  of  his 
poem : — 


OUR  OLDEST  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  357 

Ice  hafe  wennd  inntill  Ennglissh  I  have  wended  (turned)  into  English 

Goddspelless  hallghe  lare,  Gospel's  holy  lore, 

Affterr  thatt  little  witt  tatt  me  After  the  little  wit  that  me 

Min  Drihhtin  hafethth  lenedd.  My  Lord  hath  lent. 

Other  famous  writers  of  English  between  this  time  and  the 
appearance  of  Chaucer  were  Robert  of  Gloucester  and  Robert 
of  Brunne,  both  of  whom  wrote  Chronicles  of  England  in 
verse. 


355 


CHAPTEE  II. 


THE    FOURTEENTH    CENTURY. 


1.  The  opening  of  tlje  fourteenth  century  saw  the  death  of 
the  great  and  able  king,  Edward  I.,  the  "Hammer  of  the 
Scots,"  the  "  Keeper  of  his  word."  The  century  itself — a  most 
eventful  period — witnessed  the  feeble  and  disastrous  reign  of 
Edward  II. ;  the  long  and  prosperous  rule — for  fifty  years — of 
Edward  III. ;  the  troubled  times  of  Eichard  II.,  who  exhibited 
almost  a  repetition  of  the  faults  of  Edward  II. ;  and  the 
appearance  of  a  new  and  powerful  dynasty — the  House  of 
Lancaster — in  the  person  of  the  able  and  ambitious  Henry  IY. 
This  century  saw  also  many  striking  events,  and  many  still 
more  striking  changes.  It  beheld  the  welding  of  the  Saxon  and 
the  Norman  elements  into  one — chiefly  through  the  Erench 
wars ;  the  final  triumph  of  the  English  language  over  Erench 
in  1362;  the  frequent  coming  of  the  Black  Death;  the  vic- 
tories of  Crecy  and  Poitiers;  it  learned  the  universal  use 
of  the  mariner's  compass;  it  witnessed  two  kings — of  France 
and  of  Scotland — prisoners  in  London;  great  changes  in  the 
condition  of  labourers;  the  invention  of  gunpowder  in  1340; 
the  rise  of  English  commerce  under  Edward  III. ;  and  every- 
where in  England  the  rising  up  of  new  powers  and  new  ideas. 

2.  The  first  prose-writer  in  this  century  is  Sir  John  Mande- 
ville  (who  has  been  called  the  "  Father  of  English  Prose"). 
King  Alfred  has  also  been  called  by  this  name;  but  as  the 
English  written  by  Alfred  was  very  different  from  that  written 


THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  359 

by  Mandeville, — the  latter  containing  a  large  admixture  of 
French  and  of  Latin  words,  both  writers  are  deserving  of  the 
epithet.  The  most  influential  prose-writer  was  John  Wyclif, 
who  was,  in  fact,  the  first  English  Reformer  of  the  Church. 
In  poetry,  two  writers  stand  opposite  each  other  in  striking 
contrast — Geoffrey  Chaucer  and  William  Langlande,  the  first 
writing  in  courtly  "King's  English"  in  end-rhyme,  and  with 
the  fullest  inspirations  from  the  literatures  of  France  and  Italy, 
the  latter  writing  in  head-rhyme,  and — though  using  more 
French  words  than  Chaucer — with  a  style  that  was  always 
homely,  plain,  and  pedestrian.  John  Gower,  in  Kent,  and 
John  Barbour,  in  Scotland,  are  also  noteworthy  poets  in  this 
century.  The  English  language  reached  a  high  state  of  polish, 
power,  and  freedom  in  this  period;  and  the  sweetness  and 
music  of  Chaucer's  verse  are  still  unsurpassed  by  modern  poets. 
The  sentences  of  the  prose-writers  of  this  century  are  long, 
clumsy,  and  somewhat  helpless  ;  but  the  sweet  homely  English 
rhythm  exists  in  many  of  them,  and  was  continued,  through 
Wyclif's  version,  down  into  our  translation  of  the  Bible  in 
1611. 

3.  Sir  John  Mandeville  is  claimed  as  "the  first  prose- writer  in 
formed  English."  Nothing  really  is  known  about  the  man,  and  all 
we  can  say  of  him  is  that  he  is  the  ostensible  author  of  a  book  of 
travels  bearing  his  name.  It  is  only  certain  that  the  author  of 
this  book  (whoever  he  was)  died  in  1372,  and  was  buried  at 
Liege  under  the  name  of  John  Mandeville,  but  this,  it  is  more 
than  likely,  is  a  fictitious  name.  The  book  is  a  kind  of 
guide-book  to  the  Holy  Land ;  but  the  writer  himself  went  much 
further  east — reached  Cathay  or  China,  in  fact.  He  introduced  a 
large  number  of  French  words  into  our  speech,  such  as  cause,  con- 
trary, discover,  quantity,  and  many  hundred  others.  His  works  were 
much  admired,  read,  and  copied;  indeed,  hundreds  of  manuscript 
copies  of  his  book  were  made.  There  are  nineteen  still  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum.  The  book  was  not  printed  till  the  year  1499 — that  is, 
twenty- two  years  after  printing  was  introduced  into  this  country. 
Many  of  the  Old  English  inflexions  still  survive  in  his  style.  Thus 
he  says :  "  Machamete  was  born  in  Arabye,  that  was  a  pore  knave 
(boy)  that  kepte  cameles  that  wenten  with  marchantes  for  mar- 
chandise." 


360  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

4.  John  "Wyclif  (his  name  is  spelled  in  about  forty  different 
ways) — 1324-1384 — was  born  at  Hips  well,  near  Kichmond,  in  York- 
shire, in  the  year  1324,  and  died  at  the  vicarage  of  Lutterworth,  in 
Leicestershire,  in  1384.  His  fame  rests  on  two  bases — his  efforts  as 
a  reformer  of  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  and  his  complete  translation 
of  the  Bible.  This  work  was  finished  in  1383,  just  one  year  before 
his  death.  But  the  translation  was  not  done  by  himself  alone  ;  the 
larger  part  of  the  Old  Testament  version  seems  to  have  been  made 
by  Nicholas  de  Hereford.  Though  often  copied  in  manuscript,  it 
Was  not  printed  for  several  centuries.  Wyclif  s  New  Testament  was 
printed  in  1731,  and  the  Old  Testament  not  until  the  year  1850. 
But  the  words  and  the  style  of  his  translation,  which  was  read  and 
re-read  by  hundreds  of  thoughtful  men,  were  of  real  and  permanent 
service  in  fixing  the  language  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  find  it. 


5.  John  Gower  (1325-1408)  was  a  country  gentleman  of  Kent. 
As  Mandeville  wrote  his  travels  in  three  languages,  so  did  Gower  hia 
poems.  Almost  all  educated  persons  in  the  fourteenth  century  could 
read  and  write  with  tolerable  and  with  almost  equal  ease,  English, 
French,  and  Latin.  His  three  poems  are  the  Speculum  Meditantis 
("  The  Mirror  of  the  Thoughtful  Man "),  in  French  ;  the  Vox 
Clamantis  ("  Voice  of  One  Crying "),  in  Latin ;  and  Confessio 
Amantis  ("  The  Lover's  Confession  "),  in  English.  No  manuscript 
of  the  first  work  is  known  to  exist.  He  was  buried  in  St  Saviour's, 
South wark,  where  his  effigy  is  still  to  be  seen — his  head  resting  on 
his  three  works.  Chaucer  called  him  "  the  moral  Gower  " ;  and  his 
books  are  very  dull,  heavy,  and  difficult  to  read. 


6.  William  Langlande  (1332-1400),  a  poet  who  used  the  old 
English  head-rhyme,  as  Chaucer  used  the  foreign  end-rhyme,  was 
born  at  Cleobury-Mortimer  in  Shropshire,  in  the  year  1332.  The 
date  of  his  death  is  doubtful.  His  poem  is  called  the  Vision  of 
Piers  the  Plowman  ;  and  it  is  the  last  long  poem  in  our  literature 
that  was  written  in  Old  English  alliterative  rhyme.  From  this 
period,  if  rhyme  is  employed  at  all,  it  is  the  end-rhyme,  which  we 
borrowed  from  the  French  and  Italians.  The  poem  has  an  appen- 
dix called  Do-well,  Do-bet,  Do-best  —  the  three  stages  in  the 
growth  of  a  Christian.  Langlande's  writings  remained  in  manuscript 
until  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. ;  they  were  printed  then,  and  went 
through  three  editions  in  one  year.  The  English  used  in  the 
Vision  is  the  Midland  dialect — much  the  same  as  that  used  by 
Chaucer ;  only,  oddly  enough,  Langlande  admits  into  his  English  a 


THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  361 

larger  amount  of  French  words  than  Chaucer.  The  poem  is  a  dis- 
tinct landmark  in  the  history  of  our  speech.  The  following  is  a 
specimen  of  the  lines.  There  are  three  alliterative  words  in  each 
line,  with  a  pause  near  the  middle — 

"  A  voice  Zoud  in  that  light  •  to  .Lucifer  cried, 
*  Princes  of  this  palace  '  j?rest 1  undo  the  gates, 
For  here  cometh  with  crown  *  the  king  of  all  glory  ! ' " 


7.  Geoffrey  Chaucer  (1340-1400),  the  "father  of  English 
poetry,"  and  the  greatest  narrative  poet  of  this  country,  was  born 
in  London  in  or  about  the  year  1340.  He  lived  in  the  reigns  of 
Edward  III.,  Richard  II.,  and  one  year  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV. 
His  father  was  a  vintner.  The  name  Chaucer  is  a  Norman  name, 
and  is  found  on  the  roll  of  Battle  Abbey.  He  is  said  to  have 
studied  both  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  ;  served  as  page  in  the 
household  of  Prince  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  the  third  son  of 
Edward  III.;  served  also  in  the  army,  and  was  taken  prisoner 
in  one  of  the  French  campaigns.  In  1367,  he  was  appointed  gen- 
tleman-in-waiting (valettus)  to  Edward  III.,  who  sent  him  on 
several  embassies.  In  1366  he  married  a  lady  of  the  Queen's 
chamber;  and  by  this  marriage  he  became  connected  with  John 
of  Gaunt,  who  afterwards  married  a  sister  of  this  lady.  While 
on  an  embassy  to  Italy,  he  is  reported  to  have  met  the  great  poet 
Petrarch,  who  told  him  the  story  of  the  Patient  Griselda.  In  1382, 
he  was  made  Comptroller  of  Customs  in  the  great  port  of  London — 
an  office  which  he  held  till  the  year  1386.  In  that  year  he  was 
elected  knight  of  the  shire — that  is,  member  of  Parliament  for  the 
county  of  Kent.  In  138.9,  he  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the  King's 
Works  at  Westminster  and  Windsor.  From  1381  to  1389  was  pro- 
bably the  best  and  most  productive  period  of  his  life ;  for  it  was  in 
this  period  that  he  wrote  the  House  of  Fame,  the  Legend  of 
Good  Women,  and  the  best  of  the  Canterbury  Tales.  From 
1390  to  1400  was  spent  in  writing  the  other  Canterbury  Tales, 
ballads,  and  some  moral  poems.  He  died  at  Westminster  in  the 
year  1400,  and  was  the  first  writer  who  was  buried  in  the  Poets' 
Corner  of  the  Abbey.  We  see  from  his  life — and  it  was  fortunate 
for  his  poetry — that  Chaucer  had  the  most  varied  experience  as 
student,  courtier,  soldier,  ambassador,  official,  and  member  of  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  was  able  to  mix  freely  and  on  equal  terms  with  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men,  from  the  king  to  the  poorest  hind  in  the 
fields.     He  was  a  stout  man,  with  a  small  bright  face,  soft  eyes, 

1  Quickly. 


364 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    FIFTEENTH    CENTURY. 

1.  The  fifteenth  century,  a  remarkable  period  in  many  ways, 
saw  three  royal  dynasties  established  in  England— the  Houses 
of  Lancaster,  York,  and  Tudor.     Five  successful  French  cam- 
paigns of  Henry  V.,  and  the  battle  of  Agincourt  j  and,  on  the 
other  side,  the  loss  of  all  our  large  possessions  in  France,  with 
the  exception  of  Calais,  under  the  rule  of  the  weak  Henry  VI, 
were  among  the  chief   events  of  the  fifteenth  century.     The 
Wars  of  the  Roses  did  not  contribute  anything  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  century,  nor  could  so  unsettled  and  quarrelsome  a  time 
encourage  the  cultivation  of  literature.     For  this  among  other 
reasons,  we  find  no  great  compositions  in  prose  or  verse  ;  but  a 
considerable  activity  in  the  making  and  distribution  of  ballads. 
The  best  of  these  are  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  Edom  o'  Gordon, 
The   Nut-Brown  Mayde,   and   some  of   those  written  about 
Robin  Hood  and  his  exploits.     The  ballad  was  everywhere 
popular ;    and  minstrels  sang  them  in  every  city  and  village 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  England.     The  famous  bal- 
lad of  Chevy  Chase  is  generally  placed  after  the  year  1460, 
though  it  did  not  take  its  present  form  till  the  seventeenth 
century.     It  tells  the  story  of  the  Battle  of  Otterburn,  which 
was  fought  in  1388.      This  century  was  also  witness  to  the 
short   struggle   of  Richard  III.,   followed  by  the  rise  of  the 
House  of  Tudor.     And,  in  1498,  just  at  its  close,  the  won- 
derful  apparition  of  a  new  world— of  The  New  World— 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.  365 

rose  on  the  horizon  of  the  English  mind,  for  England  then  first 
heard  of  the  discovery  of  America.  But,  as  regards  thinking 
and  writing,  the  fifteenth  century  is  the  most  barren  in  our 
literature.  It  is  the' most  barren  in  the  production  of  original 
literature ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is,  compared  with  all  the 
centuries  that  preceded  it,  the  most  fertile  in  the  dissemination 
and  distribution  of  the  literature  that  already  existed.  Eor 
England  saw,  in  the  memorable  year  of  1477,  the  establishment 
of  the  first  printing-press  in  the  Almonry  at  Westminster,  by 
"William  Caxton.  The  first  book  printed  by  him  in  this  country 
was  called  'The  Dictes  and  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers.'  When 
Edward  IV.  and  his  friends  visited  Caxton's  house  and  looked  at 
his  printing-press,  they  spoke  of  it  as  a  pretty  toy;  they  could  not 
foresee  that  it  was  destined  to  be  a  more  powerful  engine  of  good 
government  and  the  spread  of  thought  and  education  than  the 
Crown,  Parliaments,  and  courts  of  law  all  put  together.  The 
two  greatest  names  in  literature  in  the  fifteenth  century  are 
those  of  James  I.  (of  Scotland)  and  "William  Caxton  himself. 
Two  followers  of  Chaucer,  Occleve  and  Lydgate  are  also  gen- 
erally mentioned.  Put  shortly,  one  might  say  that  the  chief 
poetical  productions  of  this  century  were  its  Tballads ;  and  the 
chief  prose  productions,  translations  from  Latin  or  from  foreign 
works. 

• 

2.  James  I.  of  Scotland  (1394-1437),  though  a  Scotchman,  owed 
his  education  to  England.  He  was  born  in  1394.  "Whilst  on  his 
way  to  France  when  a  boy  of  eleven,  he  was  captured,  in  time  of 
peace,  by  the  order  of  Henry  IV.,  and  kept  prisoner  in  England  for 
about  eighteen  years.  It  was  no  great  misfortune,  for  he  received 
from  Henry  the  best  education  that  England  could  then  give  in 
language,  literature,  music,  and  all  knightly  accomplishments.  He 
married  Lady  Jane  Beaufort,  the  grand-daughter  of  John  of  Gaunt, 
the  friend  and  patron  of  Chaucer.  His  best  and  longest  poem  is 
The  Kings  Quair  (that  is,  Book),  a  poem  which  was  inspired  by 
the  subject  of  it,  Lady  Jane  Beaufort  herself.  The  poem  is  written 
in  a  stanza  of  seven  lines  (called  Rime  Royal);  and  the  style  is 
a  close  copy  of  the  style  of  Chaucer.  After  reigning  thirteen  years 
in  Scotland,  King  James  was  murdered  at  Perth,  in  the  year  1437. 
A  Norman  by  blood,  he  is  the  beet  poet  of  the  fifteenth  century, 

r  «  V 


366  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

3.  William  Caxton  (1422-1491)  is  the  name  of  greatest  import- 
ance and  significance  in  the  history  of  our  literature  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  He  was  born  in  Kent  in  the  year  1422.  He  was  not  merely 
a  printer,  he  was  also  a  literary  man ;  and,  when  he  devoted  himself 
to  printing,  he  took  to  it  as  an  art,  and  not  as  a  mere  mechanical 
device.  Caxton  in  early  life  was  a  mercer  in  the  city  of  London ; 
and  in  the  course  of  his  business,  which  was  a  thriving  one,  he  had 
to  make  frequent  journeys  to  the  Low  Countries  Here  he  saw  the 
printing-press  for  the  first  time,  with  the  new  separate  types, 
was  enchanted  with  it,  and  fired  by  the  wonderful  future  it  opened. 
It  had  been  introduced  into  Holland  about  the  year  1450.  Caxton's 
press  was  set  up  in  the  Almonry  at  Westminster,  at  the  sign  of  the 
Red  Pole.  It  produced  about  eighty  separate  books,  nearly  all  of 
them  in  English,  some  of  them  written  by  Caxton  himself.  One  of 
the  most  important  of  them  was  Sir  Thomas  Malory's  History  of 
King  Arthur,  the  storehouse  from  which  Tennyson  drew  the 
stories  which  form  the  groundwork  of  his  Idylls  of  the  King. 


36? 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE   SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 


1.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  ended  in  1485,  with  the  victory  of 
Bosworth  Field.  A  new  dynasty — the  House  of  Tudor — sat 
upon  the  throne  of  England ;  and  with  it  a  new  reign  of  peace 
and  order  existed  in  the  country,  for  the  power  of  the  king  was 
paramount,  and  the  power  of  the  nobles  had  been  gradually 
destroyed  in  the  numerous  battles  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
Like  the  fifteenth,  this  century  also  is  famous  for  its  ballads,  the 
authors  of  which  are  not  known,  but  which  seem  to  have  been 
composed  "by  the  people  for  the  people."  They  were  sung 
everywhere,  at  fairs  and  feasts,  in  town  and  country,  at  going  to 
and  coming  home  from  work ;  and  many  of  them  were  set  to 
popular  dance-tunes. 

"When  Tom  came  home  from  labour, 
And  Cis  from  milking  rose, 
Merrily  went  the  tabor, 

And  merrily  went  their  toes." 

The  ballads  of  King  Lear  and  The  Babes  in  the  "Wood  are 
perhaps  to  be  referred  to  this  period. 

2.  The  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  saw  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era  in  poetry ;  and  the  last  half  saw  the  full  meridian 
splendour  of  this  new  era.  The  beginning  of  this  era  was 
marked  by  the  appearance  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  (1503-1542), 
and  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey  (1517-1547).     These  two  eminent 


368  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

writers  have  been  called  the  "twin-stars  of  the  dawn,"  the 
"founders  of  English  lyrical  poetry";  and  it  is  worthy  of 
especial  note,  that  it  is  to  Wyatt  that  we  owe  the  introduction 
of  the  Sonnet  into  our  literature,  and  to  Surrey  that  is  due  the 
introduction  of  Blank  Verse.  The  most  important  prose- 
writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  century  were  Sir  Thomas  More, 
the  great  lawyer  and  statesman,  and  William  Tyndale,  who 
translated  the  New  Testament  into  English.  In  the  latter  half 
of  the  century,  the  great  poets  are  Spenser  and  Shakespeare ; 
the  great  prose-writers,  Richard  Hooker  and  Francis  Bacon. 


3.  Sir  Thomas  More's  (1478-1535)  chief  work  in  English  is  the 
Life  and  Reign  of  Edward  V.  It  is  written  in  a  plain,  strong, 
nervous  English  style.  Hallam  calls  it  "  the  first  example  of  good 
English — pure  and  perspicuous,  well  chosen,  without  vulgarisms,  and 
without  pedantry."  His  Utopia  (a  description  of  the  country  of 
Nowhere)  was  written  in  Latin. 


4.  William  Tyndale  (1484-1536)— a  man  of  the  greatest  signifi- 
cance, both  in  the  history  of  religion,  and  in  the  history  of  our  lan- 
guage and  literature — was  a  native  of  Gloucestershire,  and  was 
educated  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford.  His  opinions  on  religion  and 
the  rule  of  the  Catholic  Church,  compelled  him  to  leave  England, 
and  drove  him  to  the  Continent  in  the  year  1524.  He  lived  in 
Hamburg  for  some  time.  With  the  German  and  Swiss  reformers 
he  held  that  the  Bible  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  grown-up 
person,  and  not  in  the  exclusive  keeping  of  the  Church.  He  ac- 
cordingly set  to  work  to  translate  the  Scriptures  into  his  native 
tongue.  Two  editions  of  his  version  of  the  New  Testament  were 
printed  in  1525-34.  He  next  translated  the  five  books  of  Moses,  and 
the  book  of  Jonah.  In  1535  he  was,  after  many  escapes  and  ad- 
ventures, finally  tracked  and  hunted  down  by  an  emissary  of  the 
Pope's  faction,  and  thrown  into  prison  at  the  castle  of  Vilvoorde, 
near  Brussels.  In  1536  he  was  brought  to  Antwerp,  tried,  con- 
demned, led  to  the  stake,  strangled,  and  burned. 

5.  The  Work  of  William  Tyndale.  —  Tyndale's  translation 
has,  since  the  time  of  its  appearance,  formed  the  basis  of  all  the 
after  versions  of  the  Bible.  It  is  written  in  the  purest  and  simplest 
English ;  and  very  few  of  the  words  used  in  his  translation  have 
grown  obsolete  in  our  modern  speech.     Tyndale's  work  is  indeed, 


THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  369 

one  of  the  most  striking  landmarks  in  the  history  of  our  language. 
Mr  Marsh  says  of  it :  "  Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
is  the  most  important  philological  monument  of  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century, — perhaps  I  should  say,  of  the  whole  period  be- 
tween Chaucer  and  Shakespeare.  .  .  .  The  best  features  of  the 
translation  of  1611  are  derived  from  the  version  of  Tyndale."'  It  may 
be  said  without  exaggeration  that,  in  the  United  Kingdom,  America, 
and  the  colonies,  about  one  hundred  millions  of  people  now  speak 
the  English  of  Tyndale's  Bible;  nor  is  there  any  book  that  has 
exerted  so  great  an  influence  on  English  rhythm,  English  style,  the 
selection  of  words,  and  the  build  of  sentences  in  our  English 
prose. 

6.  Edmund  Spenser  (1552-1599),  "  The  Poet's  Poet,"  and  one  of 
the  greatest  poetical  writers  of  his  own  or  of  any  age,  was  born  at 
East  Smithfield,  near  the  Tower  of  London,  in  the  year  1552,  about, 
nine  years  before  the  birth  of  Bacon,  and  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
He  was  educated  at  Merchant  Taylors'  School  in  London,  and  at 
Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge.  In  1579,  we  find  him  settled  in  his 
native  city,  where  his  best  friend  was  the  gallant  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
who  introduced  him  to  his  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  then  at  the 
height  of  his  power  and  influence  with  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  the 
same  year  was  published  his  first  poetical  work,  The  Shepheard's 
Calendar — a  set  of  twelve  pastoral  poems.  In  1580,  he  went  to 
Ireland  as  Secretary  to  Lord  Grey  de  Wilton,  the  Viceroy  of  that 
country.  For  some  years  he  resided  at  Kilcolman  Castle,  in  county 
Cork,  on  an  estate  which  had  been  granted  him  out  of  the  forfeited 
lands  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  had  obtained  a 
similar  but  larger  grant,  and  was  Spenser's  near  neighbour.  In  1590 
Spenser  brought  out  the  first  three  books  of  The  Faerie  Queene. 
The  second  three  books  of  his  great  poem  appeared  in  1596.  To- 
wards the  end  of  1598,  a  rebellion  broke  out  in  Ireland;  it  spread 
into  Munster  ;  Spenser's  house  was  attacked  and  set  on  fire  ;  in  the 
fighting  and  confusion  his  only  son  perished ;  and  Spenser  escaped 
with  the  greatest  difficulty.  In  deep  distress  of  body  and  mind,  he 
made  his  way  to  London,  where  he  died — at  an  inn  in  King  Street, 
Westminster,  at  the  age  of  forty-six,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1599.  He  was  buried  in  the  Abbey,  not  car  from  the  grave  of 
Chaucer. 

7.  Spenser's  Style. — His  greatest  work  is  The  Faerie  Queene  ; 
but  that  in  which  he  shows  the  most  striking  command  of  language 
is  his  Hymn  of  Heavenly  Love.  The  Faerie  Queene  is  written 
in  a  nine-lined  stanza,  which  has  since  been  called  the  Spenserian 


368  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

writers  have  been  called  the  "twin-stars  of  the  dawn,"  the 
"founders  of  English  lyrical  poetry";  and  it  is  worthy  of 
especial  note,  that  it  is  to  Wyatt  that  we  owe  the  introduction 
of  the  Sonnet  into  our  literature,  and  to  Surrey  that  is  due  the 
introduction  of  Blank  Verse.  The  most  important  prose- 
writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  century  were  Sir  Thomas  More, 
the  great  lawyer  and  statesman,  and  William  Tyndale,  who 
translated  the  New  Testament  into  English.  In  the  latter  half 
of  the  century,  the  great  poets  are  Spenser  and  Shakespeare ; 
the  great  prose-writers,  Richard  Hooker  and  Francis  Bacon. 


3.  Sir  Thomas  More's  (1478-1535)  ihief  work  in  English  is  the 
Life  and  Reign  of  Edward  V.  It  is  written  in  a  plain,  strong, 
nervous  English  style.  Hallam  calls  it  "  the  first  example  of  good 
English — pure  and  perspicuous,  well  chosen,  without  vulgarisms,  and 
without  pedantry."  His  Utopia  (a  description  of  the  country  of 
Nowhere)  was  written  in  Latin. 


4.  William  Tyndale  (1484-1536)— a  man  of  the  greatest  signifi- 
cance, both  in  the  history  of  religion,  and  in  the  history  of  our  lan- 
guage and  literature — was  a  native  of  Gloucestershire,  and  was 
educated  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford.  His  opinions  on  religion  and 
the  rule  of  the  Catholic  Church,  compelled  him  to  leave  England, 
and  drove  him  to  the  Continent  in  the  year  1524.  He  lived  in 
Hamburg  for  some  time.  With  the  German  and  Swiss  reformers 
he  held  that  the  Bible  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  grown-up 
person,  and  not  in  the  exclusive  keeping  of  the  Church.  He  ac- 
cordingly set  to  work  to  translate  the  Scriptures  into  his  native 
tongue.  Two  editions  of  his  version  of  the  New  Testament  were 
printed  in  1525-34.  He  next  translated  the  five  books  of  Moses,  and 
the  book  of  Jonah.  In  1535  he  was,  after  many  escapes  and  ad- 
ventures, finally  tracked  and  hunted  down  by  an  emissary  of  the 
Pope's  faction,  and  thrown  into  prison  at  the  castle  of  Vilvoorde, 
near  Brussels.  In  1536  he  was  brought  to  Antwerp,  tried,  con- 
demned, led  to  the  stake,  strangled,  and  burned. 

5.  The  Work  of  William  Tyndale.  —  Tyndale's  translation 
has,  since  the  time  of  its  appearance,  formed  the  basis  of  all  the 
after  versions  of  the  Bible.  It  is  written  in  the  purest  and  simplest 
English;  and  very  few  of  the  words  used  in  his  translation  have 
grown  obsolete  in  our  modern  speech.     Tyndale's  work  is  indeed, 


THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  369 

one  of  the  most  striking  landmarks  in  the  history  of  our  language. 
Mr  Marsh  says  of  it :  "  Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
is  the  most  important  philological  monument  of  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century, — perhaps  I  should  say,  of  the  whole  period  be- 
tween Chaucer  and  Shakespeare.  .  .  .  The  best  features  of  the 
translation  of  1611  are  derived  from  the  version  of  Tyndale."'  It  may 
be  said  without  exaggeration  that,  in  the  United  Kingdom,  America, 
and  the  colonies,  about  one  hundred  millions  of  people  now  speak 
the  English  of  Tyndale's  Bible;  nor  is  there  any  book  that  has 
exerted  so  great  an  influence  on  English  rhythm,  English  style,  the 
selection  of  words,  and  the  build  of  sentences  in  our  English 
prose. 

6.  Edmund  Spenser  (1552-1599),  "  The  Poet's  Poet,"  and  one  of 
the  greatest  poetical  writers  of  his  own  or  of  any  age,  was  born  at 
East  Smithfield,  near  the  Tower  of  London,  in  the  year  1552,  about, 
nine  years  before  the  birth  of  Bacon,  and  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
He  was  educated  at  Merchant  Taylors'  School  in  London,  and  at 
Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge.  In  1579,  we  find  him  settled  in  his 
native  city,  where  his  best  friend  was  the  gallant  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
who  introduced  him  to  his  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  then  at  the 
height  of  his  power  and  influence  with  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  the 
same  year  was  published  his  first  poetical  work,  The  Shepheard's 
Calendar — a  set  of  twelve  pastoral  poems.  In  1580,  he  went  to 
Ireland  as  Secretary  to  Lord  Grey  de  Wilton,  the  Viceroy  of  that 
country.  For  some  years  he  resided  at  Kilcolman  Castle,  in  county 
Cork,  on  an  estate  which  had  been  granted  him  out  of  the  forfeited 
lands  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  had  obtained  a 
similar  but  larger  grant,  and  was  Spenser's  near  neighbour.  In  1590 
Spenser  brought  out  the  first  three  books  of  The  Faerie  Queene. 
The  second  three  books  of  his  great  poem  appeared  in  1596.  To- 
wards the  end  of  1598,  a  rebellion  broke  out  in  Ireland ;  it  spread 
into  Minister ;  Spenser's  house  was  attacked  and  set  on  fire  ;  in  the 
fighting  and  confusion  his  only  son  perished ;  and  Spenser  escaped 
with  the  greatest  difficulty.  In  deep  distress  of  body  and  mind,  he 
made  his  way  to  London,  where  he  died — at  an  inn  in  King  Street, 
Westminster,  at  the  age  of  forty-six,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1599.  He  was  buried  in  the  Abbey,  not  *ar  from  the  grave  of 
Chaucer. 

7.  Spenser's  Style. — His  greatest  work  is  The  Faerie  Queene  ; 
but  that  in  which  he  shows  the  most  striking  command  of  language 
is  his  Hymn  of  Heavenly  Love.  The  Faerie  Queene  is  written 
in  a  nine-lined  stanza,  which  has  since  been  called  the  Spenserian 


370  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Stanza.  The  first  eight  lines  are  of  the  usual  length  of  five  iambic 
feet;  the  last  line  contains  six  feet,  and  is  therefore  an  Alexandrine. 
Each  stanza  contains  only  three  rhymes,  which  are  disposed  in  this 
order:  ababbcbc  c. — The  music  of  the  stanza  is  long-drawn  out, 
beautiful,  involved,  and  even  luxuriant. — The  story  of  the  poem  is 
an  allegory,  like  the  '  Pilgrim's  Progress ' ;  and  in  it  Spenser  under- 
took, he  says,  "  to  represent  all  the  moral  virtues,  assigning  to  every 
virtue  a  knight  to  be  the  patron  and  defender  of  the  same." L  Only 
six  books  were  completed  ;  and  these  relate  the  adventures  of  the 
knights  who  stand  for  Holiness,  Temperance,  Chastity,  Friendship, 
Justice,  and  Courtesy.  The  Faerie  Queene  herself  is  called 
Gloriana,  who  represents  Glory  in  his  "general  intention,"  and 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  his  "  particular  intention." 

8.  Character  of  the  Faerie  Queene. — This  poem  is  the  greatest 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Spenser  has  not  only  been  the  delight  of 
nearly  ten  generations ;  he  was  the  study  of  Shakespeare,  the  poet- 
ical master  of  Cowley  and  of  Milton,  and,  in  some  sense,  of  Dryden 
and  Pope.  Keats,  when  a  boy,  was  never  tired  of  reading  him. 
"There  is  something,"  says  Pope,  "in  Spenser  that  pleases  one  as 
strongly  in  old  age  as  it  did  in  one's  youth."  Professor  Craik  says  : 
"  Without  calling  Spenser  the  greatest  of  all  poets,  we  may  still  say 
that  his  poetry  is  the  most  poetical  of  all  poetry."  The  outburst  of 
national  feeling  after  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  in  1588;  the  new 
lands  opened  up  by  our  adventurous  Devonshire  sailors  ;  the  strong 
and  lively  loyalty  of  the  nation  to  the  queen ;  the  great  statesmen 
and  writers  of  the  period;  the  high  daring  shown  by  England 
against  Spain — all  these  animated  and  inspired  the  glowing  genius 
of  Spenser.  His  rhythm  is  singularly  sweet  and  beautiful.  Hazlitt 
says  :  "  His  versification  is  at  once  the  most  smooth  and  the  most 
sounding  in  the  language.  It  is  a  labyrinth  of  sweet  sounds." 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  wealth  of  Spenser's  phrasing  and  expression  ; 
there  seems  to  be  no  limit  to  its  flow.  He  is  very  fond  of  the  Old- 
English  practice  of  alliteration  or  head-rhyme — "  hunting  the  letter," 
as  it  was  called.     Thus  he  has — 

"  In  woods,  in  waves,  in  wars,  she  wont  to  dwell. 
Gay  without  good  is  good  heart's  greatest  loathing." 


9.  William  Shakespeare  (1564-1816),  the  greatest  dramatist 
that  England  ever  produced,  was  born  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  in 
Warwickshire,  on  the  23d  of  April — St  George's  Day — of  the  year 
1564.    His  father,  John  Shakespeare,  was  a  wool  dealer  and  grower. 

l  This  use  of  the  phrase  "the  same"  is  antiquated  English. 


THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTITRY.  371 

William  was  educated  at  the  grammar-school  of  the  town,  where  he 
learned  "  small  Latin  and  less  Greek "  ;  and  this  slender  stock  was 
his  only  scholastic  outfit  for  life.  At  the  early  age  of  eighteen  he 
married  Anne  Hathaway,  a  yeoman's  daughter.  In  1586,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-two,  he  quitted  his  native  town,  and  went  to  London. 

10.  Shakespeare's  Life  and  Character. — He  was  employed  in 
some  menial  capacity  at  the  Blackfriars  Theatre,  but  gradually  rose  to 
be  actor  and  also  adapter  of  plays.  He  was  connected  with  the 
theatre  for  about  five-and-twenty  years;  and  so  diligent  and  so 
successful  was  he,  that  he  was  able  to  purchase  shares  both  in  his 
own  theatre  and  in  the  Globe.  As  an  actor,  he  was  only  second- 
rate  :  the  two  parts  he  is  known  to  have  played  are  those  of  the 
Ghost  in  Hamlet,  and  Adam  in  As  You  Like  It.  In  1597,  at 
the  early  age  of  thirty-three,  he  was  able  to  purchase  New  Place,  in 
Stratford,  and  to  rebuild  the  house.  In  1611,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
seven,  he  retired  (making  occasional  visits  to  London,  however) 
to  New  Place,  where  he  died  in  the  year  1616.  His  old  father  and 
mother  spent  the  last  years  of  their  lives  with  him,  and  died  under 
his  roof.  Shakespeare  had  three  children  —  two  girls  and  a  boy. 
The  boy,  Hamnet,  died  at  the  age  of  twelve.  Shakespeare  himself 
was  beloved  by  every  one  who  knew  him ;  and  "  gentle  Shake- 
speare "«was  the  phrase  most  often  upon  the  lips  of  his  friends.  A 
placid  face,  with  a  sweet,  mild  expression;  a  high,  broad,  noble, 
"  two  -  storey  "  forehead;  bright  eyes;  a  most  speaking  mouth — ■ 
though  it  seldom  opened ;  an  open,  frank  manner,  a  kindly,  hand- 
some look, — such  seems  to  have  been  the  external  character  of  the 
man  Shakespeare. 

11.  Shakespeare's  Works. — He  has  written  thirty-seven  plays 
and  many  poems.  The  best  of  his  rhymed  poems  are  his  Sonnets,  in 
which  he  chronicles  many  of  the  various  moods  of  his  mind.  The 
plays  consist  of  tragedies,  historical  plays,  and  comedies.  The 
greatest  of  his  tragedies  are  probably  Hamlet  and  King  Lear ; 
the  best  of  his  historical  plays,  Richard  III.  and  Julius  Caesar ; 
and  his  finest  comedies,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  and  As 
You  Like  It.  He  wrote  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  as  well  as 
in  that  of  James ;  but  his  greatest  works  belong  to  the  latter 
period. 

12.  Shakespeare's  Style. — Every  one  knows  that  Shakespeare 
is  great ;  but  how  is  the  young  learner  to  discover  the  best  way 
of  forming  an  adequate  idea  of  his  greatness?  In  the  first  place, 
Shakespeare  has  very  many  sides  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  he  is 
great  on  every  one  of  them.  Coleridge  says :  "  In  all  points,  from 
the  most  important  to  the  most  minute,  the  judgment  of  Shakespeare 


372  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

is  commensurate  with  his  genius — nay,  his  genius  reveals  itself  in 
his  judgment,  as  in  its  most  exalted  form."  He  has  been  called 
"  mellifluous  Shakespeare ; "  "  honey-tongued  Shakespeare ; "  "  silver- 
tongued  Shakespeare ; "  "  the  thousand-souled  Shakespeare ; "  "  the 
myriad-minded ; "  and  by  many  other  epithets.  He  seems  to  have 
been  master  of  all  human  experience  ;  to  have  known  the  human 
heart  in  all  its  phases ;  to  have  been  acquainted  with  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men — high  and  low,  rich  and  poor ;  and  to  have  studied 
the  history  of  past  ages,  and  of  other  countries.  He  also  shows  a 
greater  and  more  highly  skilled  mastery  over  language  than  any 
other  writer  that  ever  lived.  The  vocabulary  employed  by  Shake- 
speare amounts  in  number  of  words  to  twenty-one  thousand.  The 
vocabulary  of  Milton  numbers  only  seven  thousand  words.  But  it 
is  not  sufficient  to  say  that  Shakespeare's  power  of  thought,  of  feel- 
ing, and  of  expression  required  three  times  the  number  of  words 
to  express  itself ;  we  must  also  say  that  Shakespeare's  power  of  ex- 
pression shows  infinitely  greater  skill,  subtlety,  and  cunning  than 
is  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  Milton.  Shakespeare  had  also  a  mar- 
vellous power  of  making  new  phrases,  most  of  which  have  become 
part  and  parcel  of  our  language.  Such  phrases  as  every  inch  a  king  ; 
witch  the  world ;  the  time  is  out  of  joint,  and  hundreds  .more,  show 
that  modern  Englishmen  not  only  speak  Shakespeare,  but  think 
Shakespeare.  His  knowledge  of  human  nature  has  enabled  him  to 
throw  into  English  literature  a  larger  number  of  genuine  "  char- 
acters "  that  will  always  live  in  the  thoughts  of  men,  than  any  other 
author  that  ever  wrote.  And  he  has  not  drawn  his  characters  from 
England  alone  and  from  his  own  time — but  from  Greece  and  Rome, 
from  other  countries,  too,  and  also  from  all  ages.  He  has  written  in 
a  greater  variety  of  styles  than  any  other  writer.  "Shakespeare," 
says  Professor  Craik,  "has  invented  twenty  styles."  The  know- 
ledge, too,  that  he  shows  on  every  kind  of  human  endeavour  is  as 
accurate  as  it  is  varied.  Lawyers  say  that  he  was  a  great  lawyer ; 
theologians,  that  he  was  an  able  divine,  and  unequalled  in  his  know- 
ledge of  the  Bible ;  printers,  that  he  must  have  been  a  printer ;  and 
seamen,  that  he  knew  every  branch  of  the  sailor's  craft. 

13.  Shakespeare's  contemporaries. — But  we  are  not  to  suppose 
that  Shakespeare  stood  alone  in  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth  century  as  a  great  poet ;  and  that  everything 
else  was  flat  and  low  around  him.  This  never  is  and  never  can  be 
the  case.  Great  genius  is  the  possession,  not  of  one  man,  but  of 
several  in  a  great  age  ;  and  we  do  not  find  a  great  writer  standing 
alone  and  unsupported,  just  as  we  do  not  find  a  high  mountain  rising 


THE  SIXTEENTH   CENTUBY.  373 

from  a  low  plain.  The  largest  group  of  the  highest  mountains  in  the 
world,  the  Himalayas,  rise  from  the  highest  table-land  in  the  world ; 
and  peaks  nearly  as  high  as  the  highest — Mount  Everest — are  seen 
cleaving  the  blue  sky  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mount  Everest  itself. 
And  so  we  find  Shakespeare  surrounded  by  dramatists  in  some  re- 
spects nearly  as  great  as  himself ;  for  the  same  great  forces  welling 
up  within  the  heart  of  England  that  made  him  created  also  the 
others.  Marlowe,  the  teacher  of  Shakespeare,  Peele,  and  Greene, 
preceded  him ;  Ben  Jonson,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Massinger 
and  Ford,  Webster,  Chapman,  and  many  others,  were  his  con- 
temporaries, lived  with  him,  talked  with  him ;  and  no  doubt  each  of 
these  men  influenced  the  work  of  the  others.  But  the  works  of  these 
men  belong  chiefly  to  the  seventeenth  century.  We  must  not,  how- 
ever, forget  that  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth — called  in  literature 
the  Elizabethan  Period — was  the  greatest  that  England  ever  saw, 
— greatest  in  poetry  and  in  prose,  greatest  in  thought  and  in  action, 
and  perhaps  also  greatest  in  external  events. 


14.  Christopher  Marlowe  (1564-1593),  the  first  great  English 
dramatist,  was  born  at  Canterbury  in  the  year  1564,  two  months 
before  the  birth  of  Shakespeare  himself.  He  studied  at  Corpus 
Christi  College,  Cambridge,  and  took  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts 
in  1587.  After  leaving  the  university,  he  came  up  to  London  and 
wrote  for  the  stage.  He  seems  to  have  led  a  wild  and  reckless  life, 
and  was  stabbed  in  a  tavern  brawl  on  the  1st  of  June  1593.  "  As  he 
may  be  said  to  have  invented  and  made  the  verse  of  the  drama,  so 
he  created  the  English  drama."  His  chief  plays  are  Dr  Faustus 
and  Edward  the  Second.  His  style  is  one  of  the  greatest  vigour 
and  power  :  it  is  often  coarse,  but  it  is  always  strong.  Ben  Jonson 
spoke  of  "  Marlowe's  mighty  line"  ;  and  Lord  Jeffrey  says  of  him: 
"  In  felicity  of  thought  and  strength  of  expression,  he  is  second  only 
to  Shakespeare  himself." 


15.  Ben  Jonson  (1574-1637),  the  greatest  dramatist  of  England 
after  Shakespeare,  was  born  in  Westminster  in  the  year  1574,  just 
nine  years  after  Shakespeare's  birth.  He  received  his  education  at 
Westminster  School.  It  is  said  that,  after  leaving  school,  he  was 
obliged  to  assist  his  stepfather  as  a  bricklayer ;  that  he  did  not  like 
the  work ;  and  that  he  ran  off  to  the  Low  Countries,  and  there  en- 
listed as  a  soldier.     On  his  return  to  London,  he  began  to  write  for 


374  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE, 

the  stage.  Jonson  was  a  friend  and  companion  of  Shakespeare's  ; 
and  at  the  Mermaid,  in  Fleet  Street,  they  had,  in  presence  of  men 
like  Raleigh,  Marlowe,  Greene,  Peele,  and  other  distinguished 
Englishmen,  many  "  wit  -  combats "  together.  Jonson's  greatest 
plays  are  Volpone  or  the  Fox,  and  the  Alchemist  —  both 
comedies.  In  1616  he  was  created  Poet  -  Laureate.  For  many 
years  he  was  in  receipt  of  a  pension  from  James  I.  and  from  Charles 
I.  ;  but  so  careless  and  profuse  were  his  habits,  that  he  died  in 
poverty  in  the  year  1637.  He  was  buried  in  an  upright  position  in 
Westminster  Abbey  ;  and  the  stone  over  his  grave  still  bears  the 
inscription,  "  0  rare  Ben  Jonson  !  "  He  has  been  called  a  "  robust, 
surly,  and  observing  dramatist." 

16.  Richard  Hooker  (1553-1600),  one  of  the  greatest  of  Eliza- 
bethan  prose-writers,  was  born  at  Heavitree,  a  village  near  the  city 
of  Exeter,  in  the  year  1553.  By  the  kind  aid  of  Jewel,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  he  was  sent  to  Oxford,  where  he  distinguished  himself 
as  a  hard-working  student,  and  especially  for  his  knowledge  of 
Hebrew.  In  1581  he  entered  the  Church.  In  the  same  year  he 
made  an  imprudent  marriage  with  an  ignorant,  coarse,  vulgar,  and 
domineering  woman.  He  was  appointed  Master  of  the  Temple  in 
1585 ;  but,  by  his  own  request,  he  was  removed  from  that  office, 
and  chose  the  quieter  living  of  Boscombe,  near  Salisbury.  Here 
he  wrote  the  first  four  books  of  his  famous  work,  The  Laws 
of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  which  were  published  in  the  year  1594. 
In  1595  he  was  translated  to  the  living  of  Bishopsborne,  near  Can- 
terbury. His  death  took  place  in  the  year  1600.  The  complete 
work,  which  consisted  of  eight  books,  was  not  published  till  1662. 

17.  Hooker's  Style. — His  writings  are  said  to  "mark  an  era  in 
English  prose."  His  sentences  are  generally  very  long,  very  elab- 
orate, but  full  of  "  an  extraordinary  musical  richness  of  language." 
The  order  is  often  more  like  that  of  a  Latin  than  of  an  English 
sentence  ;  and  he  is  fond  of  Latin  inversions.  Thus  he  writes  : 
"  That  which  by  wisdom  he  saw  to  be  requisite  for  that  people,  was 
by  as  great  wisdom  compassed."  The  following  sentences  give  us  a 
good  example  of  his  sweet  and  musical  rhythm.  "  Of  law  there  can 
be  no  less  acknowledged,  than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  her 
voice  the  harmony  of  the  world.  All  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do 
her  homage  ;  the  very  least  as  feeling  her  care,  and  the  greatest  as 
not  exempted  from  her  power :  both  angels  and  men,  and  creatures 
of  what  condition  soever,  though  each  in  different  sort  and  manner, 
yet  all,  with  uniform  consent,  admiring  her  as  the  mother  of  their 
peace  and  joy." 


THE   SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  375 

18.  Sir  Philip  Sidney  (1554-1586),  a  noble  knight,  a  states- 
man, and  one  of  the  best  prose-writers  of  the  Elizabethan  age,  was 
born  at  Penshurst,  in  Kent,  in  the  year  1554.  He  was  educated  at 
Shrewsbury  School,  and  then  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  At  the 
age  of  seventeen  he  went  abroad  for  three  years'  travel  on  the  Con- 
tinent ;  and,  while  in  Paris,  witnessed,  from  the  windows  of  the 
English  Embassy,  the  horrible  Massacre  of  St  Bartholomew  in  the 
year  1572.  At  the  early  age  of  twenty-two  he  was  sent  as  am- 
bassador to  the  Emperor  of  Germany ;  and  while  on  that  embassy, 
he  met  William  of  Orange — "William  the  Silent" — who  pronounced 
him  one  of  the  ripest  statesmen  in  Europe.  This  was  said  of  a  young 
man  "  who  seems  to  have  been  the  type  of  what  was  noblest  in  the 
youth  of  England  during  times  that  could  produce  a  statesman." 
In  1580  he  wrote  the  Arcadia,  a  romance,  and  dedicated  it  to  his 
sister,  the  Countess  of  Pembroke.  The  year  after,  he  produced  his 
Apologie  for  Poetrie.  His  policy  as  a  statesman  was  to  side  with 
Protestant  rulers,  and  to  break  the  power  of  the  strongest  Catholic 
kingdom  on  the  Continent — the  power  of  Spain.  In  1585  the 
Queen  sent  him  to  the  Netherlands  as  governor  of  the  important 
fortress  of  Flushing.  He  was  mortally  wounded  in  a  skirmish  at 
Zutphen ;  and  as  he  was  being  carried  off  the  field,  handed  to  a 
private  the  cup  of  cold  water  that  had  been  brought  to  quench  his 
raging  thirst.  He  died  of  his  wounds  on  the  17th  of  October  1586. 
One  of  his  friends  wrote  of  him  : — 

"  Death,  courage,  honour,  make  thy  soul  to  live ! — 
Thy  soul  in  heaven,  thy  name  in  tongues  of  men ! " 

10.  Sidney's  Poetry. — In  addition  to  the  Arcadia  and  the 
Apologie  for  Poetrie,  Sidney  wrote  a  number  of  beautiful  poems. 
The  best  of  these  are  a  series  of  sonnets  called  Astrophel  and 
Stella,  of  which  his  latest  critic  says  :  "  As  a  series  of  sonnets,  the 
Astrophel  and  Stella  poems  are  second  only  to  Shakespeare's  ;  as 
a  series  of  love -poems,  they  are  perhaps  unsurpassed."  Spenser 
wrote  an  elegy  upon  Sidney  himself,  under  the  title  of  Astrophel. 
Sidney's  prose  is  among  the  best  of  the  sixteenth  century.  "  He  reads 
more  modern  than  any  other  author  of  that  century."  He  does  not 
use  "  ink-horn  terms,"  or  cram  his  sentences  with  Latin  or  French  or 
Italian  words  ;  but  both  his  words  and  his  idioms  are  of  pure  English. 
He  is  fond  of  using  personifications.  Such  phrases  as,  "  About  the 
time  that  the  candles  began  to  inherit  the  sun's  r  'fice ; "  "  Seeing  the 
day  begin  to  disclose  her  comfortable  beauties,"  are  not  uncommon. 
The  rhythm  of  his  sentences  is  always  melodious,  and  each  of  them 
has  a  very  pleasant  close. 


376 


CHAPTEE    Y. 


THE    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY. 


1.  The  First  Half. — Under  the  wise  and  able  rule  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  this  country  had  enjoyed  a  long  term  of  peace.  The 
Spanish  Armada  had  been  defeated  in  1588;  the  Spanish  power 
had  gradually  waned  before  the  growing  might  of  England ;  and 
it  could  be  said  with  perfect  truth,  in  the  words  of  Shake- 
speare : — 

"In  her  days  every  man  doth  eat  in  safety 
Under  his  own  vine  what  he  plants,  and  sing 
The  merry  songs  of  peace  to  all  his  neighbours." 

The  country  was  at  peace ;  and  every  peaceful  art  and  pursuit 
prospered.  As  one  sign  of  the  great  prosperity  and  outstretch- 
ing enterprise  of  commerce,  we  should  note  the  foundation  of 
the  East  India  Company  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1600.  The 
reign  of  James  I.  (1603-1625)  was  also  peaceful;  and  the 
country  made  steady  progress  in  industries,  in  commerce,  and  in 
the  arts  and  sciences.  The  two  greatest  prose-writers  of  the 
first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  Baleigh  and  Bacon ; 
the  two  greatest  poets  were  Shakespeare  and  Ben  Jonson. 


2.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (1552-1618). — "Walter  Baleigh,  soldier, 
statesman,  colonise,.,  historian,  and  poet,  was  born  in  Devonshire,  in 
the  year  1552.  He  was  sent  to  Oriel  College,  Oxford  ;  but  he  left  at 
the  early  age  of  seventeen  to  fight  on  the  side  of  the  Protestants  in 
France.     From  that  time  his  life  is  one  long  series  of  schemes,  plots, 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  377 

adventures,  and  misfortunes — culminating  in  his  execution  at  West- 
minster in  the  year  1618.  He  spent  "the  evening  of  a  tempestuous 
life  "  in  the  Tower,  where  he  lay  for  thirteen  years ;  and  during  this 
imprisonment  he  wrote  his  greatest  work,  the  History  of  the 
World,  which  was  never  finished.  His  life  and  adventures  he- 
long  to  the  sixteenth ;  his  works  to  the  seventeenth  century. 
Raleigh  was  probably  the  most  dazzling  figure  of  his  time ;  and  is 
"in  a  singular  degree  the  representative  of  the  vigorous  versatility 
of  the  Elizabethan  period."  Spenser,  whose  neighbour  he  was  for 
some  time  in  Ireland,  thought  highly  of  his  poetry,  calls  him  "  the 
summer's  nightingale,"  and  says  of  him — 

11  Yet  semuling1  my  song,  he  took  in  hand 
My  pipe,  before  that  aemnled  of  many, 
And  played  thereon  (for  well  that  skill  he  conn'd), 
Himself  as  skilful  in  that  art  as  any." 

Raleigh  is  the  author  of  the  celebrated  verses,  "  Go,  soul,  the  body's 
guest ; "  "  Give  me  my  scallop-shell  of  quiet ; "  and  of  the  lines  which 
were  written  and  left  in  his  Bible  on  the  night  before  he  was 
beheaded : — 

"  Even  such  is  time,  that  takes  in  trust 

Our  youth,  our  joys,  our  all  we  have, 

And  pays  us  but  with  age  and  dust ; 

Who,  in  the  dark  and  silent  grave, 

When  we  have  wandered  all  our  ways, 

Shuts  up  the  story  of  our  days : 

But  from  this  earth,  this  grave,  this  dust, 

The  Lord  shall  raise  me  up,  I  trust ! " 

Raleigh's  prose  has  been  described  as  "  some  of  the  most  flowing 
and  modern-looking  prose  of  the  period;"  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that,  if  he  had  given  himself  entirely  to  literature,  he  would 
have  been  one  of  the  greatest  poets  and  prose-writers  of  his  time. 
His  style  is  calm,  noble,  and  melodious.  The  following  is  the  last 
sentence  of  the  History  of  the  World  : — 

"0  eloquent,  just,  and  mighty  Death  !  whom  none  could  advise,  thou  hast 
persuaded ;  what  none  hath  dared,  thou  hast  done ;  and  whom  all  the  world 
hath  flattered,  thou  only  hast  cast  out  of  the  world  and  despised  ;  thou  hast 
drawn  together  all  the  far-stretched  greatness,  all  the  pride,  cruelty,  and  am- 
bition of  man,  and  covered  it  all  over  with  these  two  narrow  words  Hicjacet" 


3.  Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626),  one  of  the  greatest  of  English 
thinkers,  and  one  of  our  best  prose-writers,  was  born  at  York  House, 

1  Emulating. 


378  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

in  the  Strand,  London,  in  the  year  1561.  He  was  a  grave  and 
precocious  child;  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  knew  him  and  liked 
him,  used  to  pat  him  and  call  him  her  "  young  Lord  Keeper  " — his 
father  being  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Seals  in  her  reign.  At  the  early 
age  of  twelve  he  was  sent  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  re- 
mained there  for  three  years.  In  1582  he  was  called  to  the  bar; 
in  1593  he  was  M.P.  for  Middlesex.  But  his  greatest  rise  in  fortune 
did  not  take  place  till  the  reign  of  James  I. ;  when,  in  the  year  1618, 
he  had  risen  to  be  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England.  The  title 
which  he  took  on  this  occasion — for  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  is 
chairman  of  the  House  of  Lords — was  Baron  Verulam;  and  a 
few  years  after  he  was  created  Viscount  St  Albans.  His  elo- 
quence was  famous  in  England ;  and  Ben  Jonson  said  of  him :  "  The 
fear  of  every  man  that  heard  him  was  lest  he  should  make  an  end." 
In  the  year  1621  he  was  accused  of  taking  bribes,  and  of  giving  un- 
just decisions  as  a  judge.  He  had  not  really  been  unconscientious, 
but  he  had  been  careless ;  was  obliged  to  plead  guilty ;  and  he  was 
sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  £40,000,  and  to  be  imprisoned  in  the 
Tower  during  the  king's  pleasure.  The  fine  was  remitted;  Bacon 
was  set  free  in  two  days ;  a  pension  was  allowed  him ;  but  he  never 
afterwards  held  office  of  any  kind.  Ha  died  on  Easter-day  of  the 
year  1626,  of  a  chill  which  he  caught  while  experimenting  on  the 
preservative  properties  of  snow. 

4.  His  chief  prose- works  in  English — for  he  wrote  many  in  Latin — 
are  the.  Essays,  and  the  Advancement  of  Learning.  His  Essays 
make  one  of  the  wisest  books  ever  written ;  and  a  great  number  of 
English  thinkers  owe  to  them  the  best  of  what  they  have  had  to  say. 
They  are  written  in  a  clear,  forcible,  pithy,  and  picturesque  style, 
with  short  sentences,  and  a  good  many  illustrations,  drawn  from  his- 
tory, politics,  and  science.  It  is  true  that  the  style  is  sometimes 
stiff,  and  even  rigid ;  but  the  stiffness  is  the  stiffness  of  a  richly 
embroidered  cloth,  into  which  threads  of  gold  and  silver  have  been 
worked.  Bacon  kept  what  he  called  a  Promus  or  Commonplace- 
Book;  and  in  this  he' entered  striking  thoughts,  sentences,  and 
phrases  that  he  met  with  in  the  course  of  his  reading,  or  that  oc- 
curred to  him  during  the  day.  He  calls  these  sentences  "  salt-pits, 
that  you  may  extract  salt  out  of,  and  sprinkle  as  you  will."  The 
following  are  a  few  examples: — 

"That  that  is  Forced  is  not  Forcible." 
"  No  Man  loveth  his  Fetters  though  they  be  of  Gold. " 
"  Clear  and  Round  Dealing  is  the  Honour  of  Man's  Nature." 
"  The  Arch-flatterer,  with  whom  all  the  petty  Flatterers  have  intelligence,  is 
a  Man's  Self." 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  379 

"  If  Things  be  not  tossed  upon  the  Arguments  of  Counsell,  they  will  be  tossed 
upon  the  Waves  of  Fortune. " 

The  following  are  a  few  striking  sentences  from  his  Essays  : — 

H  Virtue  is  like  a  rich  stone,  best  plain  set." 

M  A  man's  nature  runs  either  to  herbs  or  weeds ;  therefore,  let  him  season- 
ably water  the  one,  and  destroy  the  other. " 

"  A  crowd  is  not  company,  and  faces  are  but  a  gallery  of  pictures,  and  talk 
but  a  tinkling  cymbal,  when  there  is  no  love." 

No  man  could  say  wiser  things  in  pithier  words ;  and  we  may 
well  say  of  his  thoughts,  in  the  words  of  Tennyson,  that  they  are — 

"Jewels,  five  words  long, 
That  on  the  stretched  forefinger  of  all  time 
Sparkle  for  ever." 


5.  William  Shakespeare  (1564-1616)  has  been  already  treated 
of  in  the  chapter  on  the  sixteenth  century.  But  it  may  be  noted 
here  that  his  first  two  periods — as  they  are  called — fall  within  the 
sixteenth,  and  his  last  two  periods  within  the  seventeenth  century. 
His  first  period  lies  between  1591  and  1596;  and  to  it  are  ascribed 
his  early  poems,  his  play  of  Richard  II.,  and  some  other  histor- 
ical plays.  His  second  period,  which  stretches  from  1596  to  1601 
holds  the  Sonnets,  thev Merchant  of  Venice,  thcMerry  Wives  of 
Windsor,  and  a  few  historical  dramas.  But  his  third  and  fourth 
periods  were  richer  in  production,  and  in  greater  productions.  The 
third  period,  which  belongs  to  the  years  1601  to  1608,  produced  the 
play  of  Julius  Caesar,  the  great  tragedies  of  Hamlet,  Othello, 
Lear,  Macbeth,  and  some  others.  To  the  fourth  period,  which 
lies  between  1608  and  1613,  belong  the  calmer  and  wiser  dramas, 
—Winter's  Tale,  .The  Tempest,  and  Henry  VIII.  Three 
years  after — in  1616 — he  died. 

6.  The  Second  Half.— The  second  half  of  the  great  and 
unique  seventeenth  century  was  of  a  character  very  different 
indeed  from  that  of  the  first  half.  The  Englishmen  born  into 
it  had  to  face  a  new  world !  New  thoughts  in  religion,  new 
forces  in  politics,  new  powers  in  social  matters  had  been  slowly, 
steadily,  and  irresistibly  rising  into  supremacy  ever  since  the 
Scottish  King  James  came  to  take  his  seat  upon  the  throne  of 
England  in  1603.     These  new  forces  had,  in  fact,  become  so 


,380  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

strong  that  they  led  a  king  to  the  scaffold,  and  handed  over  the 
government  of  England  to  a  section  of  Republicans.  Charles 
I.  was  executed  in  1649;  and,  though  his  son  came  back 
to  the  throne  in  1660,  the  face,  the  manners,  the  thoughts  of 
England  and  of  Englishmen  had  undergone  a  complete  internal 
and  external  change.  The  Puritan  party  was  everywhere  the 
ruling  party;  and  its  views  and  convictions,  in  religion,  in 
politics,  and  in  literature,  held  unquestioned  sway  in  almost 
every  part  of  England.  In  the  Puritan  party,  the  strongest 
section  was  formed  by  the  Independents — the  "  root  and  branch 
men  " — as  they  were  called ;  and  the  greatest  man  among  the 
Independents  was  Oliver  Cromwell,  in  whose  government  John 
Milton  was  Foreign  Secretary.  Milton  was  certainly  by  far 
the  greatest  and  most  powerful  writer,  both  in  prose  and  in 
verse,  on  the  side  of  the  Puritan  party.  The  ablest  verse-writer 
on  the  Royalist  or  Court  side  was  Samuel  Butler,  the  unrivalled 
satirist — the  Hogarth  of  language, — the  author  of  Hudibras. 
The  greatest  prose-writer  on  the  Royalist  and  Church  side  was 
Jeremy  Taylor,  Bishop  of  Down,  in  Ireland,  and  the  author 
of  Holy  Living,  Holy  Dying,  and  many  other  works  written 
with  a  wonderful  eloquence.  The  greatest  philosophical  writer 
was  Thomas  Hobbes,  the  author  of  the  Leviathan.  The  most 
powerful  writer  for  the  people  was  John  Bunyan,  the  immortal 
author  of  The  Pilgrim's  Progress.  When,  however,  we  come 
to  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and  James  IT,  and  the  new  influences 
which  their  rule  and  presence  imparted,  we  find  the  greatest  poet 
to  be  John  Dryden,  and  the  most  important  prose-writer,  John 
Locke. 

7.  The  Poetry  of  the  Second  Half. — The  poetry  of  the  second 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  not  an  outgrowth  or  lineal 
descendant  of  the  poetry  of  the  first  half.  No  trace  of  the 
strong  Elizabethan  poetical  emotion  remained ;  no  writer  of  this 
half-century  can  claim  kinship  with  the  great  authors  of  the 
Elizabethan  period.  The  three  most  remarkable  poets  in  the 
latter  half  of  this  century  are  John  Milton,  Samuel  Butler, 
and  John  Dryden.  But  Milton's  culture  was  derived  chiefly 
from  the  great  Greek  and  Latin  writers ;  and  his  poems  show 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  381 

few  or  no  signs  of  belonging  to  any  age  or  generation  in  particu- 
lar of  English  literature.  Butler's  poem,  the  Hudibras,  is  the 
only  one  of  its  kind ;  and  if  its  author  owes  anything  to  other 
writers,  it  is  to  France  and  not  to  England  that  we  must  look 
for  its  sources.  Dryden,  again,  shows  no  sign  of  being  related 
to  Shakespeare  or  the  dramatic  writers  of  the  early  part  of  the 
century ;  he  is  separated  from  them  by  a  great  gulf ;  he  owes 
most,  when  he  owes  anything,  to  the  French  school  of  poetry. 


8.  John  Milton  (1608-1674),  the  second  greatest  name  in  Eng- 
lish poetry,  and  the  greatest  of  all  our  epic  poets,  was  born  in  Bread 
Street,  Cheapside,  London,  in  the  year  1608— five  years  after  the  ac- 
cession of  James  1.  to  the  throne,  and  eight  years  before  the  death  of 
Shakespeare.  He  was  educated  at  St  Paul's  School,  and  then  at 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  so  handsome — with  a  delicate 
complexion,  clear  blue  eyes,  and  light-brown  hair  flowing  down  his 
shoulders — that  he  was  known  as  the  "  Lady  of  Christ's."  He  was 
destined  for  the  Church ;  but,  being  early  seized  with  a  strong  desire 
to  compose  a  great  poetical  work  which  should  bring  honour  to  his 
country  and  to  the  English  tongue,  he  gave  up  all  idea  of  becoming 
a  clergyman.  Filled  with  his  secret  purpose,  he  retired  to  Horton, 
in  Buckinghamshire,  where  his  father  had  bought  a  small  country 
seat.  Between  the  years  1632  and  1638  he  studied  all  the  best 
Greek  and  Latin  authors,  mathematics,  and  science;  and  he  also 
wrote  L'Allegro  and  II  Penseroso,  Comus,  Lycidas,  and  some 
shorter  poems.  These  were  preludes,  or  exercises,  towards  the  great 
poetical  work  which  it  was  the  mission  of  his  life  to  produce.  In 
1638-39  he  took"  a  journey  to  the  Continent.  Most  of  his  time 
was  spent  in  Italy ;  and,  when  in  Florence,  he  paid  a  visit  to  Galileo 
in  prison.  It  had  been  his  intention  to  go  on  to  Greece ;  but  the 
troubled  state  of  politics  at  home  brought  him  back  sooner  than  he 
wished.  The  next  ten  years  of  his  life  were  engaged  in  teaching 
and  in  writing  his  prose  works.  His  ideas  on  teaching  are  to  be 
found  in  his"-  Tractate  on  Education.  The  most  eloquent  of  his 
prose-works  is  his  Areopagitica,  a  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of 
Unlicensed  Printing  (1644) — a  plea  for  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
for  relieving  all  writings  from  the  criticism  of  censors.  In  1649 — 
the  year  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I. — Milton  was  appointed  Latin 
or  Foreign  Secretary  to  the  Government  of  Oliver  Cromwell ;  and 
for  the  next  ten  years  his  time  was  taken  up  with  official  work, 
and  with  writing  prose-volumes  in  defence  of  the  action  of  the 

2D 


382  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Republic.  In  1660  the  Restoration  took  place;  and  Milton  was  at 
length  free,  in  his  fifty-third  year,  to  carry  out  his  long-cherished 
scheme  of  writing  a  great  Epic  poem.  He  chose  the  subject  of  the 
fall  and  the  restoration  of  man.  Paradise  Lost  was  completed  in 
1665 ;  but,  owing  to  the  Plague  and  the  Fire  of  London,  it  was  not 
published  till  the  year  1667.  Milton's  young  Quaker  friend,  Ellwood, 
said  to  him  one  day :  "  Thou  hast  said  much  of  Paradise  Lost,  what 
hast  thou  to  say  of  Paradise  Found  ? "  Paradise  Regained  was 
the  result — a  work  which  was  written  in  1666,  and  appeared,  along 
with  Samson  Agonistes,  in  the  year  1671.  Milton  died  in  the 
year  1674 — about  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  He  had 
been  three  times  married. 

9.  L' Allegro  (or  "The  Cheerful  Man")  is  a  companion  poem  to 
II  Penseroso  (or  "  The  Meditative  Man  "  ).  The  poems  present  two 
contrasted  views  of  the  life  of  the  student.  They  are  written  in  an 
irregular  kind  of  octosyllabic  verse.  The  Comus — mostly  in  blank 
verse — is  a  lyrical  drama  ;  and  Milton's  work  was  accompanied  by 
a  musical  composition  by  the  then  famous  musician  Henry  Lawes. 
Lycidas— a  poem  in  irregular  rhymed  verse — is  a  threnody  on  the 
death  of  Milton's  young  friend,  Edward  King,  who  was  drowned 
in  sailing  from  Chester  to  Dublin.  This  poem  has  been  called  "  the 
touchstone  of  taste ; "  the  man  who  cannot  admire  it  has  no  feeling 
for  true  poetry.  The  Paradise  Lost  is  the  story  of  how  Satan  waa 
allowed  to  plot  against  the  happiness  of  man ;  and  how  Adam  and 
Eve  fell  through  his  designs.  The  style  is  the  noblest  in  the  English 
language ;  the  music  of  the  rhythm  is  lofty,  involved,  sustained,  and 
sublime.  "  In  reading  '  Paradise  Lost,' "  says  Mr  Lowell,  "  one  has  a 
feeling  of  spaciousness  such  as  no  other  poet  gives."  Paradise 
Regained  is,  in  fact,  the  story  of  the  Temptation,  and  of  Christ's 
triumph  over  the  wiles  of  Satan.  Wordsworth  says:  "'Paradise 
Regained'  is  most  perfect  in  execution  of  any  written  by  Milton;" 
and  Coleridge  remarks  that  "it  is  in  its  kind  the  most  perfect 
poem  extant,  though  its  kind  may  be  inferior  in  interest."  Samson 
Agonistes  ("  Samson  in  Struggle"  )  is  a  drama,  in  highly  irregular 
unrhymed  verse,  in  which  the  poet  sets  forth  his  own  unhappy  fate — 

"Eyeless,  in  Gaza,  at  the  mill  with  slaves." 

It  is,  indeed,  an  autobiographical  poem — it  is  the  story  of  the  last 
years  of  the  poet's  life. 


10.  Samuel  Butler  (1612-1680),  the  wittiest  of  English  poets,  was 
born  at  Strensham,  in  Worcestershire,  in  the  year  1612,  four  years 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  383 

after  the  birth  of  Milton,  and  four  years  before  the  death  of  Shake-, 
speare.  He  was  educated  at  the  grammar-school  of  Worcester,  and 
afterwards  at  Cambridge — but  only  for  a  short  time.  At  the  Resto- 
ration he  was  made  secretary  to  the  Earl  of  Carbery,  who  was  then 
President  of  the  Principality  of  Wales,  and  steward  of  Ludlow  Castle. 
The  first  part  of  his  long  poem  called  Hudibras  appeared  in  1663, 
the  second  part  in  1664  ;  the  third  in  1678.  Two  years  after,  Butler 
died  in  the  greatest  poverty  in  London.  He  was  buried  in  St  Paul's, 
Covent  Garden ;  but  a  monument  was  erected  to  him  in  Westminster 
Abbey.     Upon  this  fact  Wesley  wrote  the  following  epigram  : — 

"  While  Butler,  needy  wretch,  was  yet  alive, 
No  generous  patron  would  a  dinner  give ; 
See  him,  when  starved  to  death,  and  turned  to  dust, 
Presented  with  a  monumental  bust. 
The  poet's  fate  is  here  in  emblem  shown, — 
He  asked  for  bread,  and  he  received  a  stone." 

11.  The  Hudibras  is  a  burlesque  poem, — a  long  lampoon,  a 
laboured  caricature, — in  mockery  of  the  weaker  side  of  the  great 
Puritan  party.  It  is  an  imaginary  account  of  the  adventures  of  a 
Puritan  knight  and  his  squire  in  the  Civil  Wars.  It  is  choke-full  of 
all  kinds  of  learning,  of  the  most  pungent  remarks — a  very  hoard  of 
sentences  and  saws,  "  of  vigorous  locutions  and  picturesque  phrases, 
of  strong,  sound  sense,  and  robust  English."  It  has  been  more 
quoted  from  than  almost  any  book  in  our  language.  Charles  II. 
was  never  tired  of  reading  it  and  quoting  from  it — 

"  He  never  ate,  nor  drank,  nor  slept, 
But  Hudibras  still  near  him  kept" — 

says  Butler  himself. 

The  following  are  some  of  his  best  known  lines  : — 

"  And,  like  a  lobster  boil'd,  the  morn 
From  black  to  red  began  to  turn." 

"  For  loyalty  is  still  the  same, 
Whether  it  win  or  lose  the  game: 
True  as  the  dial  to  the  sun, 
Altho'  it  be  not  shin'd  upon." 

"  He  that  complies  against  his  will, 
Is  of  his  own  opinion  still." 

12.  John  Dryden  (1631-1700),  the  greatest  of  eur  poets  in  the 
second  rank,  was  born  at  Aldwincle,  in  Northamptonshire,  in  the 


384  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

year  1631.  He  was  descended  from  Puritan  ancestors  on  both 
sides  of  his  house.  He  was  educated  at  Westminster  School,  and 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  London  became  his  settled  abode  in 
the  year  1657.  At  the  Restoration,  in  1660,  he  became  an  ardent 
Royalist ;  and,  in  the  year  1663,  he  married  the  daughter  of  a  Royalist 
nobleman,  the  Earl  of  Berkshire.  It  was  not  a  happy  marriage ;  the 
lady,  on  the  one  hand,  had  a  violent  temper,  and,  on  the  other,  did 
not  care  a  straw  for  the  literary  pursuits  of  her  husband.  In  1666  he 
wrote  his  first  long  poem,  the  Annus  Mirabilis  ("  The  Wonderful 
Year  "),  in  which  he  paints  the  war  with  Holland,  and  the  Fire  of 
London  ;  and  from  this  date  his  life  is  "  one  long  literary  labour." 
In  1670,  he  received  the  double  appointment  of  Historiographer- 
Royal  and  Poet-Laureate.  Up  to  the  year  1681,  his  work  lay  chiefly 
in  writing  plays  for  the  theatre ;  and  these  plays  were  written  in 
rhymed  verse,  in  imitation  of  the  French  plays  ;  for,  from  the  date 
of  the  Restoration,  French  influence  was  paramount  both  in  literature 
and  in  fashion.  But  in  this  year  he  published  the  first  part  of 
Absalom  and  Ach.itoph.el — one  of  the  most  powerful  satires  in  the 
language.  In  the  year  1683  he  was  appointed  Collector  of  Customs 
in  the  port  of  London — a  post  which  Chaucer  had  held  before  him. 
(It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Dryden  a  translated  "  the  Tales  of  Chaucer 
into  modern  English.)  At  the  accession  of  James  II.,  in  1685,  Dryden 
became  a  Roman  Catholic  ;  most  certainly  neither  for  gain  nor  out 
of  gratitude,  but  from  conviction.  In  1687,  appeared  his  poem  of 
The  Hind  and  the  Panther,  in  which  he  defends  his  new  creed. 
He  had,  a  few  years  before,  brought  out  another  poem  called  Religio 
Laici  ("  A  Layman's  Faith  "),  which  was  a  defence  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  of  her  position  in  religion.  In  The  Hind  and  the 
Panther,  the  Hind  represents  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  "  a  milk- 
white  hind,  unspotted  and  unchanged,"  the  Panther  the  Church  of 
England;  and  the  two  beasts  reply  to  each  other  in  all  the  argu- 
ments used  by  controversialists  on  these  two  sides.  When  the 
Revolution  of  1688  took  place,  and  James  II.  had  to  flee  the  king- 
dom, Dryden  lost  both  his  offices  and  the  pension  he  had  from 
the  Crown.  Nothing  daunted,  he  set  to  work  once  more.  Again 
he  wrote  for  the  stage ;  but  the  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent 
chiefly  in  translation.  He  translated  passages  from  Homer,  Ovid, 
and  from  some  Italian  writers;  but  his  most  important  work  was 
the  translation  of  the  whole  of  Virgil's*  iEneid.  To  the  last  he 
retained  his  fire  and  vigour,  action  and  rush  of  verse  ;  and  some  of 
his  greatest  lyric  poems  belong  to  his  later  years.  His  ode  called 
Alexander's  Feast  was  written  at  the  age  of  sixty-six ;  and  it  was 
written  at  one  sitting.     At  the  age  of  sixty-nine  he  was  meditating  a 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  385 

translation  of  the  whole  of  Homer — both  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey. 
He  died  at  his  house  in  London,  on  May -day  of  1 700,  and  was  buried 
with  great  pomp  and  splendour  in  Poets'  Corner  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

13.  His  best  satire  is  the  Absalom  and  Achitophel;  his  best 
specimen  of  reasoning  in  verse  is  The  Hind  and  the  Panther. 
His  best  ode  is  hi3  Ode  to  the  Memory  of  Mrs  Anne  Killigrew. 
Dryden's  style  is  distinguished  by  its  power,  sweep,  vigour,  and 
"  long  majestic  march."  No  one  has  handled  the  heroic  couplet — 
and  it  was  this  form  of  verse  that  he  chiefly  used — with  more  vigour 
than  Dryden ;  Pope  was  more  correct,  more  sparkling,  more  finished, 
but  he  had  not  Dryden's  magnificent  march  or  sweeping  impulsiveness. 
"  The  fire  and  spirit  of  the  '  Annus  Mirabilis,' "  says  a  recent  critic, 
"  are  nothing  short  of  amazing,  when  the  difficulties  which  beset  the 
author  are  remembered.  The  glorious  dash  of  the  performance  is 
his  own."  His  prose,  though  full  of  faults,  is  also  very  vigorous. 
It  has  "  something  of  the  lightning  zigzag  vigour  and  splendour  of 
his  verse."  He  always  writes  clear,  homely,  and  pure  English, — full 
of  force  and  point. 

Many  of  his  most  pithy  lines  are  often  quoted : — 

"Men  are  but  children  of  a  larger  growth." 

"  Errors,  like  straws,  upon  the  surface  flow ; 
He  that  would  search  for  pearls  must  dive  below." 

"The  greatest  argument  for  love  is  love." 

"The  secret  pleasure  of  the  generous  act, 
Is  the  great  mind's  great  bribe." 

The  great  American  critic  and  poet,  Mr  Lowell,  compares  him  to 
"  an  ostrich,  to  be  classed  with  flying  things,  and  capable,  what  with 
leap  and  flap  together,  of  leaving  the  earth  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter 
space,  but  loving  the  open  plain,  where  wing  and  foot  help  each 
other  to  something  that  is  both  flight  and  run  at  once." 


14.  Jeremy  Taylor  (1613-1667),  the  greatest  master  of  ornate 
and  musical  English  prose  in  his  own  day,  was  born  at  Cambridge  in 
the  year  1613— just  three  years  before  Shakespeare  died.  His  father 
was  a  barber.  After  attending  the  free  grammar-school  of  Cam- 
bridge, he  proceeded  to  the  University.  He  took  holy  orders  and 
removed  to  London.  When  he  was  lecturing  one  day  at  St  Paul's, 
Archbishop  Laud  was  so  taken  by  his  "youthful  beauty,  pleasant 
air,"  fresh  eloquence,  and  exuberant  style,  that  he  had  him  created 


386  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

a  Fellow  of  All  Souls'  College,  Oxford.  When  the  Civil  War  broke 
out,  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Parliamentary  forces ;  and,  in- 
deed, suffered  imprisonment  more  than  once.  After  the  Restoration, 
he  was  presented  with  a  bishopric  in  Ireland,  where  he  died  in 
1667. 

15.  Perhaps  his  best  works  are  his  Holy  Living  and  Holy  Dying. 
His  style  is  rich,  even  to  luxury,  full  of  the  most  imaginative  illus- 
trations, and  often  overloaded  with  ornament.  He  has  been  called 
"  the  Shakespeare  of  English  prose,"  "  the  Spenser  of  divinity," 
and  by  other  appellations.  The  latter  title  is  a  very  happy  descrip- 
tion ;  for  he  has  the  same  wealth  of  style,  phrase,  and  description 
that  Spenser  has,  and  the  same  boundless  delight  in  setting  forth  his 
thoughts  in  a  thousand  different  ways.  The  following  is  a  specimen 
of  his  writing.     He  is  speaking  of  a  shipwreck  : — 

"These  are  the  thoughts  of  mortals,  this  is  the  end  and  sum  of  all  their 
designs.  A  dark  night  and  an  ill  guide,  a  boisterous  sea  and  a  br©ken  cable, 
a  h*d  rock  and  a  rough  wind,  dash  in  pieces  the  fortune  of  a  whole  family ; 
and  they  that  shall  weep  loudest  for  the  accident  are  not  yet  entered  into  the 
storm,  and  yet  have  suffered  shipwreck." 

His  writings  contain  many  pithy  statements.  The  following  are 
a  few  of  them: — 

"  No  man  is  poor  that  does  not  think  himself  so." 

"  He  that  spends  his  time  in  sport  and  calls  it  recreation,  is  like  him  whose 
garment  is  all  made  of  fringe,  and  his  meat  nothing  but  sauce. 

"  A  good  man  is  as  much  in  awe  of  himself  as  of  a  whole  assembly." 


16.  Thomas  Hobbes  (1588-1679),  a  great  philosopher,  was  born 
at  Malmesbury  in  the  year  1588.  He  is  hence  called  "the  philo- 
sopher of  Malmesbury."  He  lived  during  the  reigns  of  four  Eng- 
lish sovereigns — Elizabeth,  James  I.,  Charles  I.,  and  Charles  II.; 
and  he  was  twenty -eight  years  of  age  when  Shakespeare  died. 
He  is  in  many  respects  the  type  of  the  hard-working,  long-lived, 
persistent  Englishman.  He  was  for  many  years  tutor  in  the  Devon- 
shire family — to  the  first  Earl  of  Devonshire,  and  to  the  third  Earl  of 
Devonshire — and  lived  for  several  years  at  the  family  seat  of  Chats- 
worth.  In  his  youth  he  was  acquainted  with  Bacon  and  Ben  Jonson ; 
in  his  middle  age  he  knew  Galileo  in  Italy ;  and  as  he  lived  to  the 
age  of  ninety -two,  he  might  have  conversed  with  John  Locke  or 
with  Daniel  Defoe.  His  greatest  work  is  the  Leviathan ;  or,  The 
Matter,  Form,  and  Power  of  a  Commonwealth.  His  style 
is  clear,  manly,  and  vigorous.     He  tried  to  write  poetry  too.     At 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  387 

the  advanced  age  of  eighty-five,  he  wrote  a  translation  of  the  whole 
of  Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey  into  rhymed  English  verse,  using 
the  same  quatrain  and  the  same  measure  that  Dryden  employed 
in  his  'Annus  Mirabilis.'  Two  lines  are  still  remembered  of  this 
translation :  speaking  of  a  child  and  his  mother,  he  says — 

u  And  like  a  star  upon  her  bosom  lay 
His  beautiful  and  shining  golden  head." 


17.  John  Bdnyan  (1828-1688),  one  of  the  most  popular  of  our 
prose -writers,  was  born  at  Elstow,  in  Bedfordshire,  in  the  year 
1628 — just  three  years  before  the  birth  of  Dryden.  He  served, 
when  a  young  man,  with  the  Parliamentary  forces,  and  was  present 
at  the  siege  of  Leicester.  At  the  Restoration,  he  was  apprehended 
for  preaching,  in  disobedience  to  the  Conventicle  Act,  "was  had 
home  to  prison,  and  there  lay  complete  twelve  years."  Here  he 
supported  himself  and  his  family  by  making  tagged  laces  and  other 
small-wares ;  and  here,  too,  he  wrote  the  immortal  Pilgrim's  Pro- 
gress. After  his  release,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist  congre- 
gation at  Bedford.  He  had  a  great  power  of  bringing  persons  who 
had  quarrelled  together  again ;  and  he  was  so  popular  among  those 
who  knew  him,  that  he  was  generally  spoken  of  as  "  Bishop  Bunyan." 
On  a  journey,  undertaken  to  reconcile  an  estranged  father  and  a  rebel- 
lious son,  he  caught  a  severe  cold,  and  died  of  fever  in  London,  in  the 
year  1 668.  Every  one  has  read,  or  will  read,  the  Pilgrim's  Progress ; 
and  it  may  be  said,  without  exaggeration,  that  to  him  who  has  not 
read  the  book,  a  large  part  of  English  life  and  history  is  dumb  and 
unintelligible.  Bunyan  has  been  called  the  "  Spenser  of  the  people," 
and  "  the  greatest  master  of  allegory  that  ever  lived."  His  power 
of  imagination  is  something  wonderful;  and  his  simple,  homely, 
and  vigorous  style  makes  everything  so  real,  that  we  seem  to  be 
reading  a  narrative  of  everyday  events  and  conversations.  His 
vocabulary  is  not,  as  Macaulay  said,  "  the  vocabulary  of  the  common 
people;"  rather  should  we  say  that  his  English  is  the  English  of 
the  Bible  and  of  the  best  religious  writers.  His  style  is,  almost 
everywhere,  simple,  homely,  earnest,  and  vernacular — without  being 
vulgar.  Bunyan's  books  have,  along  with  Shakespeare  and  Tyndale's 
works,  been  among  the  chief  supports  of  an  idiomatic,  nervous,  and 
simple  English. 


18.  John  Locke  (1832-1704),  a  great  English  philosopher,  waa 
born  at  Wrington,  near  Bristol,  in  the  year  1632.     He  was  educated 


388  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

at  Oxford ;  but  he  took  little  interest  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics, 
his  chief  studies  lying  in  medicine  and  the  physical  sciences.  He 
became  attached  to  the  famous  Lord  Shaftesbury,  under  wKom  he 
filled  several  public  offices — among  others,  that  of  Commissioner  of 
Trade.  When  Shaftesbury  was  obliged  to  flee  to  Holland,  Locke 
followed  him,  and  spent  several  years  in  exile  in  that  country.  All 
his  life  a  very  delicate  man,  he  yet,  by  dint  of  great  care  and  thought- 
fulness,  contrived  to  live  to  the  age  of  seventy-two.  His  two  most 
famous  works  are  Some  Thoughts  concerning  Education,  and 
the  celebrated  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding.  The 
latter,  which  is  his  great  work,  occupied  his  time  and  thoughts  for 
eighteen  years.  In  both  these  books,  Locke  exhibits  the  very  genius 
of  common-sense.  The  purpose  of  education  is,  in  his  opinion,  not 
to  make  learned  men,  but  to  maintain  "a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body ; "  and  he  begins  the  education  of  the  future  man  even  from 
his  cradle.  In  his  philosophical  writings,  he  is  always  simple ;  but, 
as  he  is  loose  and  vacillating  in  his  use  of  terms,  this  simplicity  is 
often  purchased  at  the  expense  of  exactness  and  self-consistency. 


389 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

THE    FIRST   HALF    OF   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 

1.  The  Age  of  Prose. — The  eighteenth  century  was  an  age 
of  prose  in  two  senses.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  a  prosaic  age ; 
and,  in  the  second  place,  better  prose  than  poetry  was  pro- 
duced by  its  writers.  One  remarkable  fact  may  also  be  noted 
about  the  chief  prose-writers  of  this  century — and  that  is,  that 
they  were,  most  of  them,  not  merely  able  writers,  not  merely 
distinguished  literary  men,  but  also  men  of  affairs — men  well 
versed  in  the  world  and  in  matters  of  the  highest  practical 
moment,  while  some  were  also  statesmen  holding  high  office. 
Thus,  in  the  first  half  of  the  century,  we  find  Addison,  Swift, 
and  Defoe  either  holding  office  or  influencing  and  guiding 
those  who  held  office ;  while,  in  the  latter  half,  we  have  men 
like  Burke,  Hume,  and  Gibbon,  of  whom  the  same,  or  nearly 
the  same,  can  be  said.  The  poets,  on  the  contrary,  of  this 
eighteenth  century,  are  all  of  them — with  the  very  slightest 
exceptions — men  who  devoted  most  of  their  lives  to  poetry, 
and  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  practical  matters.  It 
may  also  be  noted  here  that  the  character  of  the  eighteenth 
century  becomes  more  and  more  prosaic  as  it  goes  on — less  and 
less  under  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  poetry,  until,  about  the 
close,  a  great  reaction  makes  itself  felt  in  the  persons  of  Cowper, 
Chatterton,  and  Burns,  of  Crabbe  and  Wordsworth. 

2.  The  First  Half.— The  great  prose-writers  of  the  first  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century  are  Addison  and  Steele,  Swift  and 


390  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

Defoe.  All  of  these  men  had  some  more  or  less  close  con- 
nection with  the  rise  of  journalism  in  England ;  and  one  of 
them,  Defoe,  was  indeed  the  founder  of  the  modern  newspaper. 
By  far  the  most  powerful  intellect  of  these  four  was  Swift. 
The  greatest  poets  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
were  Pope,  Thomson,  Collins,  and  Gray.  Pope  towers  above 
all  of  them  by  a  head  and  shoulders,  because  he  was  much 
more  fertile  than  any,  and  because  he  worked  so  hard  and  so 
untiringly  at  the  labour  of  the  file — at  the  task  of  polishing  and 
improving  his  verses.  But  the  vein  of  poetry  in  the  three 
others — and  more  especially  in  Collins — was  much  more  pure 
and  genuine  than  it  was  in  Pope  at  any  time  of  his  life — at  any 
period  of  his  writing.  Let  us  look  at  each  of  these  writers  a 
little  more  closely. 


3.  Daniel  Defoe  (1661-1731),  one  of  the  most  fertile  writers 
that  England  ever  saw,  and  one  who  has  been  the  delight  of 
many  generations  of  readers,  was  born  in  the  city  of  London  in  the 
year  1661.  He  was  educated  to  be  a  Dissenting  minister ;  but  he 
turned  from  that  profession  to  the  pursuit  of  trade.  He  attempted 
several  trades, — was  a  hosier,  a  hatter,  a  printer  ;  and  he  is  said  also 
to  have  been  a  brick  and  tile  maker.  In  1692  he  failed  in  business ; 
but,  in  no  long  time  after,  he  paid  every  one  of  his  creditors  to  the 
uttermost  farthing.  Through  all  his  labours  and  misfortunes  he  was 
always  a  hard  and  careful  reader, — an  omnivorous  reader,  too,  for 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  reading  almost  every  book  that  came  in  his 
way.  He  made  his  first  reputation  by  writing  political  pamphlets. 
One  of  his  pamphlets  brought  him  into  high  favour  with  King 
William ;  another  had  the  effect  of  placing  him  in  the  pillory  and 
lodging  him  in  prison.  But  while  in  Newgate,  he  did  not  idle  away 
his  time  or  "languish"  ;  he  set  to  work,  wrote  hard,  and  started  a 
newspaper,  The  Review,  —  the  earliest  genuine  newspaper  Eng- 
land had  seen  up  to  his  time.  This  paper  he  brought  out  two  or 
three  times  a- week ;  and  every  word  of  it  he  wrote  himself.  He 
continued  to  carry  it  on  single-handed  for  eight  years.  In  1706, 
he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Commission  for  bringing  about  the 
union  between  England  and  Scotland  ;  and  his  great  knowledge  of 
commerce  and  commercial  affairs  were  of  singular  value  to  this  Com- 
mission. In  1715  he  had  a  dangerous  illness,  brought  on  by  political 
excitement ;  and,  on  his  recovery,  he  gave  up  most  of  his  political 


FIRST   HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  391 

writing,  and  took  to  the  composition  of  stories  and  romances. 
Although  now  a  man  of  fifty-four,  he  wrote  with  the  vigour  and 
ease  of  a  young  man  of  thirty.  His  greatest  imaginative  work 
was  written  in  1719 — when  he  was  nearly  sixty — The  Life  and 
Strange  Surprising  Adventures  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  of 
York,  Mariner,  .  .  .  written  by  Himself.  Within  six  years 
he  had  produced  twelve  works  of  a  similar  kind.  He  is  said  to  have 
written  in  all  two  hundred  and  fifty  books  in  the  course  of  his 
lifetime.     He  died  in  1731. 

4.  His  best  known — and  it  is  also  his  greatest — work  is  Robinson 
Crusoe  ;  and  this  book,  which  every  one  has  read,  may  be  compared 
with  l  Gulliver's  Travels,'  for  the  purpose  of  observing  how  imag- 
inative effects  are  produced  by  different  means  and  in  different  ways. 
Another  vigorous  work  of  imagination  by  Defoe  is  the  Journal  of 
the  Plague,  which  appeared  in  1722.  There  are  three  chief  things  to 
be  noted  regarding  Defoe  and  his  writings.  These  are  :  first,  that  Defoe 
possessed  an  unparalleled  knowledge — a  knowledge  wider  than  even 
Shakespeare's — of  the  circumstances  and  details  of  human  life  among 
all  sorts,  ranks,  and  conditions  of  men  ;  secondly,  that  he  gains  his 
wonderful  realistic  effects  by  the  freest  and  most  copious  use  of 
this  detailed  knowledge  in  his  works  of  imagination  ;  and  thirdly, 
that  he  possessed  a  vocabulary  of  the  most  wonderful  wealth.  His 
style  is  strong,  homely,  and  vigorous,  but  the  sentences  are  long, 
loose,  clumsy,  and  sometimes  ungrammatical.  Like  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  he  was  too  eager  to  produce  large  and  broad  effects  to  take 
time  to  balance  his  clauses  or  to  polish  his  sentences.  Like  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  again,  he  possesses  in  the  highest  degree  the  art  of 
particularising. 


5.  Jonathan  Swift  (1667-1745),  the  greatest  prose-writer,  in 
his  own  kind,  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  opposite  in  most 
respects  —  especially  in  style  —  of  Addison,  was  born  in  Dublin 
in  the  year  1667.  Though  born  in  Ireland,  he  was  of  purely 
English  descent — his  father  belonging  to  a  Yorkshire  family,  and 
his  mother  being  a  Leicestershire  lady.  His  father  died  before  he 
was  born ;  and  he  was  educated  by  the  kindness  of  an  uncle. 
After  being  at  a  private  school  at  Kilkenny,  he  was  sent  to  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  where  he  was  plucked  for  his  degree  at  his  first 
examination,  and,  on  a  second  trial,  only  obtained  his  B.A.  "by 
special  favour."  He  next  came  to  England,  and  for  eleven  years 
acted  as  private  secretary  to  Sir  William  Temple,  a  retired  states- 
man and  ambassador,  who  lived  at  Moor  Park,  near  Richmond-on- 


392  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

Thames.  In  1692  he  paid  a  visit  to  Oxford,  and  there  obtained  the 
degree  of  M.A.  In  1700  he  went  to  Ireland  with  Lord  Berkeley  as 
his  chaplain,  and  while  in  that  country  was  presented  with  several 
livings.  He  at  first  attached  himself  to  the  Whig  party,  but  stung 
by  this  party's  neglect  of  his  labours  and  merits,  he  joined  the 
Tories,  who  raised  him  to  the  Deanery  of  St  Patrick's  Cathedral  in 
Dublin.  But,  though  nominally  resident  in  Dublin,  he  spent  a  large 
part  of  his  time  in  London.  Here  he  knew  and  met  everybody 
who  was  worth  knowing,  and  for  some  time  he  was  the  most  im- 
posing figure,  and  wielded  the  greatest  influence  in  all  the  best 
social,  political,  and  literary  circles  of  the  capital.  In  1714,  on  the 
death  of  Queen  Anne,  Swift's  hopes  of  further  advancement  died 
out ;  and  he  returned  to  his  Deanery,  settled  in  Dublin,  and  "  com- 
menced Irishman  for  life."  A  man  of  strong  passions,  he  usually 
spent  his  birthday  in  reading  that  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Job  which 
contains  the  verse,  "  Let  the  day  perish  in  which  I  was  born."  He 
died  insane  in  1745,  and  left  his  fortune  to  found  a  lunatic  asylum 
in  Dublin.  One  day,  when  taking  a  walk  with  a  friend,  he  saw  a 
blasted  elm,  and,  pointing  to  it,  he  said  :  "  I  shall  be  like  that  tree, 
and  die  first  at  the  top."  For  the  last  three  years  of  his  life  he  never 
spoke  one  word. 

6.  Swift  has  written  verse  ;  but  it  is  his  prose- works  that  give 
him  his  high  and  unrivalled  place  in  English  literature.  His  most 
powerful  work,  published  in  1704,  is  the  Tale  of  a  Tub — a  satire 
on  the  disputes  between  the  Eoman  Catholic,  Anglican,  and  Presby- 
terian Churches.  His  best  known  prose-work  is  the  Gulliver's 
Travels,  which  appeared  in  1726.  This  work  is  also  a  satire;  but 
it  is  a  satire  on  men  and  women, — on  humanity.  "  The  power  of 
Swift's  prose,"  it  has  been  said  by  an  able  critic,  "  was  the  terror  of 
his  own,  and  remains  the  wonder  of  after  times."  His  style  is  strong, 
simple,  straightforward ;  he  uses  the  plainest  words  and  the  homeliest 
English,  and  every  blow  tells.  Swift's  style — as  every  genuine  style 
does — reflects  the  author's  character.  He  was  an  ardent  lover  and  a 
good  hater.  Sir  Walter  Scott  describes  him  as  "  tall,  strong,  and 
well  made,  dark  in  complexion,  but  with  bright  blue  eyes  (Pope  said 
they  were  "  as  azure  as  the  heavens "),  black  and  bushy  eyebrows, 
aquiline  nose,  and  features  which  expressed  the  stern,  haughty,  and 
dauntless  turn  of  his  mind."  He  grew  savage  under  the  slightest 
contradiction  ;  and  dukes  and  great  lords  were  obliged  to  pay  court 
to  him.  His  prose  was  as  trenchant  and  powerful  as  were  his  man- 
ners :  it  has  been  compared  to  "  cold  steel."  His  own  definition 
of  a  good  style  is  "  proper  words  in  proper  places." 


FIRST  HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  393 

7.  Joseph  Addison  (1672-1719),  the  most  elegant  prose-writer — 
as  Pope  was  the  mose  polished  verse-writer — of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, was  born  at  Milston,  in  Wiltshire,  in  the  year  1672.  He  was 
educated  at  Charterhouse  School,  in  Lond'n,  where  one  of  his  friends 
and  companions  was  the  celebrated  Dick  Steele — afterwards  Sir 
Kichard  Steele.  He  then  went  to  Oxford,  where  he  made  a  name  for 
himself  by  his  beautiful  compositions  in  Latin  verse.  In  1695  he 
addressed  a  poem  to  King  William  ;  and  this  poem  brought  him  into 
notice  with  the  Government  of  the  day.  Not  long  after,  he  received 
a  pension  of  £300  a-year,  to  enable  him  to  travel ;  and  he  spent  some 
time  in  France  and  Italy.  The  chief  result  of  this  tour  was  a  poem 
entitled  A  Letter  from  Italy  to  Lord  Halifax.  In  1704,  when 
Lord  Godolphin  was  in  search  of  a  poet  who  should  celebrate  in  an 
adequate  style  the  striking  victory  of  Blenheim,  Addison  was  intro- 
duced to  him  by  Lord  Halifax.  His  poem  called  The  Campaign 
was  the  result ;  and  one  simile  in  it  took  and  held  the  attention 
of  all  English  readers,  and  of  "  the  town."  A  violent  storm  had 
passed  over  England  ;  and  Addison  compared  the  calm  genius  of 
Marlborough,  who  was  as  cool  and  serene  amid  shot  and  shell  as  in 
a  drawing-room  or  at  the  dinner- table,  to  the  Angel  of  the  Storm. 
The  lines  are  these  : — 

"So  when  an  Angel  by  divine  command 
With  rising  tempests  shakes  a  guilty  land, 
Such  as  of  late  o'er  pale  Britannia  passed, 
Calm  and  serene  he  drives  the  furious  blast; 
And,  pleased  the  Almighty's  orders  to  perform, 
Rides  in  the  whirlwind,  and -directs  the  storm." 

For  this  poem  Addison  was  rewarded  with  the  post  of  Commissioner 
of  Appeals.  He  rose,  successively,  to  be  Under  Secretary  of  State  ; 
Secretary  for  Ireland  ;  and,  finally,  Secretary  of  State  for  England — 
an  office  which  would  correspond  to  that  of  our  present  Home 
Secretary.  He  married  the  Countess  of  Warwick,  to  whose  son  he 
had  been  tutor  ;  but  it  was  not  a  happy  marriage.  Pope  says  of  him 
in  regard  to  it,  that — 

"He  married  discord  in  a  noble  wife." 

He  died  at  Holland  House,  Kensington,  London,  in  the  year  1719,  at 
the  age  of  forty-seven. 

8.  But  it  is  not  at  all  as  a  poet,  but  as  a  prose-writer,  that  Addison 
is  famous  in  the  history  of  literature.  While  he  was  in  Ireland, 
his  friend  Steele  started  The  Tatler,  in  1709  ;  and  Addison  sent 
numerous  contributions  to  this  little  paper.  In  1711,  Steele  began 
a  still  more  famous  paper,  which  he  called  The  Spectator ;  and 


394  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Addison's  writings  in  this  morning  journal  made  its  reputation.  His 
contributions  are  distinguishable  by  being  signed  with  some  one  of  the 
letters  of  the  name  Clio — the  Muse  of  History.  A  third  paper,  The 
Guardian,  appeared  a  few  years  after  ;  and  Addison's  contributions 
to  it  are  designated  by  a  hand  «§r)  at  the  foot  of  each.  In  addition 
to  his  numerous  prose-writings,  Addison  brought  out  the  tragedy  of 
Cato  in  1713.  It  was  very  successful ;  but  it  is  now  neither  read 
nor  acted.  Some  of  his  hymns,  however,  are  beautiful,  and  are  well 
known.  Such  are  the  hymn  beginning,  "The  spacious  firmament 
on  high  ; "  and  his  version  of  the  23d  Psalm,  "  The  Lord  my  pasture 
shall  prepare." 

9.  Addison's  prose  style  is  inimitable,  easy,  graceful,  full  of  humour 
— full  of  good  humour,  delicate,  with  a  sweet  and  kindly  rhythm, 
and  always  musical  to  the  ear.  He  is  the  most  graceful  of  social 
satirists ;  and  his  genial  creation  of  the  character  of  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverley  will  live  for  ever.  While  his  work  in  verse  is  never 
more  than  second-rate,  his  writings  in  prose  are  always  first-rate. 
Dr  Johnson  said  of  his  prose  :  "  Whoever  wishes  to  attain  an  English 
style — familiar  but  not  coarse,  and  elegant  but  not  ostentatious, 
— must  give  his  days  and  nights  to  the  study  of  Addison."  Lord 
Lytton  also  remarks  :  "  His  style  has  that  nameless  urbanity  in 
which  we  recognise  the  perfection  of  manner ;  courteous,  but  not 
courtier-like ;  so  dignified,  yet  so  kindly ;  so  easy,  yet  high-bred. 
It  is  the  most  perfect  form  of  English."  His  style,  however,  must 
be  acknowledged  to  want  force — to  be  easy  rather  than  vigorous ; 
and  it  has  not  the  splendid  march  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  or  the  noble 
power  of  Savage  Landor. 


10.  Richard  Steele  (1672-1729),  commonly  called  "  Dick  Steele," 
the  friend  and  colleague  of  Addison,  was  born  in  Dublin,  but  of 
English  parents,  in  the  year  1672.  The  two  friends  were  educated 
at  Charterhouse  and  at  Oxford  together ;  and  they  remained  friends, 
with  some  slight  breaks  and  breezes,  to  the  close  of  life.  Steele 
was  a  writer  of  plays,  essays,  and  pamphlets — for  one  of  which  he 
was  expelled  from  the  House  of  Commons  ;  but  his  chief  fame  was 
earned  in  connection  with  the  Society  Journals,  which  he  founded. 
He  started  many — such  as  Town-Talk,  The  Tea-Table,  Chit- 
chat ;  but  only  the  Tatler  and  the  Spectator  rose  to  success  and 
to  fame.  The  strongest  quality  in  his  writings  is  his  pathos  :  the 
source  of  tears  is  always  at  his  command  ;  and,  although  himself 
of  a  gay  and  even  rollicking  temperament,  he  seems  to  have  pre- 
ferred this  vein.     The  literary  skill  of  Addison — his  happy  art  in 


FIRST   HALF  OF   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  395 

the  choosing  of  words — did  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  Steele  ;  but  he 
is  more  hearty  and  more  human  in  his  description  of  character.  He 
died  in  1729,  ten  years  after  the  departure  of  his  friend  Addison. 


11.  Alexander  Pope  (1688-1744),  the  greatest  poet  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  born  in  Lombard  Street,  London,  in  the 
year  of  the  Revolution,  1688.  His  father  was  a  wholesale  linendraper, 
who,  having  amassed  a  fortune,  retired  to  Binfield,  on  the  borders  of 
Windsor  Forest.  In  the  heart  of  this  beautiful  country  young  Pope's 
youth  was  spent.  On  the  death  of  his  father,  Pope  left  Windsor 
and  took  up  his  residence  at  Twickenham,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames,  where  he  remained  till  his  death  in  1744.  His  parents 
being  Roman  Catholics,  it  was  impossible  for  young  Pope  to  go  either 
to  a  public  school  or  to  one  of  the  universities ;  and  hence  he  was 
educated  privately.  At  the  early  age  of  eight,  he  met  with  a  trans- 
lation of  Homer  in  verse ;  and  this  volume  became  his  companion 
night  and  day.  At  the  age  of  ten,  he  turned  some  of  the  events 
described  in  Homer  into  a  play.  The  poems  of  Spenser,  the  poets' 
poet,  were  his  next  favourites  ;  but  the  writer  who  made  the  deepest 
and  most  lasting  impression  upon  his  mind  was  Dry  den.  Little 
Pope  began  to  write  verse  very  early.     He  says  of  himself — 

"  As  yet  a  child,  nor  yet  a  fool  to  fame, 
I  lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  came." 

His  Ode  to  Solitude  was  written  at  the  age  of  twelve ;  his  Pas- 
torals when  he  was  fifteen.  His  Essay  on  Criticism,  which  was 
composed  in  his  twentieth  year,  though  not  published  till  1711, 
established  his  reputation  as  a  writer  of  neat,  clear,  sparkling,  and 
elegant  verse.  The  Rape  of  the  Lock  raised  his  reputation  still 
higher.  Macaulay  pronounced  it  his  best  poem.  De  Quincey 
declared  it  to  be  "the  most  exquisite  monument  of  playful  fancy 
that  universal  literature  offers."  Another  critic  has  called  it  the 
"perfection  of  the  mock -heroic."  Pope's  most  successful  poem— if 
we  measure  it  by  the  fame  and  the  money  it  brought  him — was  his 
translation  of  the  Iliad  of  Homer.  A  great  scholar  said  of  this 
translation  that  it  was  "  a  very  pretty  poem,  but  not  Homer."  The 
fact  is  that  Pope  did  not  translate  directly  from  the  Greek,  but  from 
a  French  or  a  Latin  version  which  he  kept  beside  him.  Whatever 
its  faults,  and  however  great  its  deficiency  as  a  representation  of  the 
powerful  and  deep  simplicity  of  the  original  Greek,  no  one  can  deny 
the  charm  and  finish  of  its  versification,  or  the  rapidity,  facility,  and 
melody  of  the  flow  of  the  verse.  These  qualities  make  this  work 
unique  in  English  poetry. 


396  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

12.  After  finishing  the  Iliad,  Pope  undertook  a  translation  of  the 
Odyssey  of  Homer.  This  was  not  so  successful ;  nor  was  it  so  well 
done.  In  fact,  Pope  translated  only  half  of  it  himself ;  the  other 
half  was  written  by  two  scholars  called  Broome  and  Fenton.  His 
next  great  poem  was  the  Dunciad, — a  satire  upon  those  petty  writers, 
carping  critics,  and  hired  defamers  who  had  tried  to  write  down  the 
reputation  of  Pope's  Homeric  work.  "The  composition  of  the 
*  Dunciad '  revealed  to  Pope  where  his  true  strength  lay,  in  blending 
personalities  with  moral  reflections." 

13.  Pope's  greatest  works  were  written  between  1730  and  1740  ; 
and  they  consist  of  the  Moral  Essays,  the  Essay  on  Man,  and  the 
Epistles  and  Satires.  These  poems  are  full  of  the  finest  thoughts, 
expressed    in    the    most    perfect    form.      Mr    Ruskin    quotes  the 

couplet — 

"  Never  elated,  while  one  man's  oppressed ; 
Never  dejected,  whilst  another's  blessed," — 

as  "  the  most  complete,  concise,  and  lofty  expression  of  moral  temper 
existing  in  English  words."  The  poem  of  Pope  which  shows  his  best 
and  most  striking  qualities  in  their  most  characteristic  form,  is 
probably  the  Epistle  to  Dr  Arbuthnot  or  Prologue  to  the 
Satires.  In  this  poem  occur  the  celebrated  lines  about  Addison — ■ 
which  make  a  perfect  portrait,  although  it  is  far  from  being  a  true 
likeness. 

His  pithy  lines  and  couplets  have  obtained  a  permanent  place  in 
literature.     Thus  we  have  : — 

"  True  wit  is  nature  to  advantage  dressed, 
What  oft  was  thought,  but  ne'er  so  well  expressed." 

"  Good-nature  and  good-sense  must  ever  join. 
To  err  is  human,  to  forgive  divine." 

"  All  seems  infected  that  the  infected  spy, 
As  all  looks  yellow  to  the  jaundic'd  eye." 

"  Fear  not  the  anger  of  the  wise  to  raise ; 
Those  best  can  bear  reproof  who  merit  praise." 

The  greatest  conciseness  is  visible  in  his  epigrams  and  in  his  com- 
pliments : — 

"  A  vile  encomium  doubly  ridicules : 
There's  nothing  blackens  like  the  ink  of  fools." 

"  And  not  a  vanity  is  given  in  vain." 

"  Would  ye  be  blest  ?  despise  low  joys,  low  gains, 
Disdain  whatever  Cornbury  disdains, 
Be  virtuous,  and  be  happy  for  your  pains." 


FIRST   HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  397 

14.  Pope  is  the  foremost  literary  figure  of  his  age  and  century  ; 
and  he  is  also  the  head  of  a  school.  He  brought  to  perfection  a  style 
of  writing  verse  which  was  followed  by  hundreds  of  clever  writers. 
Cowper  says  of  him  : — 

"  But  Pope — his  musical  finesse  was  such, 
So  nice  his  ear,  so  delicate  his  touch, — 
Made  poetry  a  mere  mechanic  art, 
And  every  warbler  has  his  tune  by  heart." 

Pope  was  not  the  poet  of  nature  or  of  humanity ;  he  was  the  poet  of 
"  the  town,"  and  of  the  Court.  He  was  greatly  influenced  by  the 
neatness  and  polish  of  French  verse ;  and,  from  his  boyhood,  his 
great  ambition  was  to  be  "  a  correct  poet."  He  worked  and  worked, 
polished  and  polished,  until  each  idea  had  received  at  his  hands 
its  very  neatest  and  most  epigrammatic  expression.  In  the  art  of 
condensed,  compact,  pointed,  and  yet  harmonious  and  flowing  verse, 
Pope  has  no  equal.  But,  as  a  vehicle  for  poetry — for  the  love  and 
sympathy  with  nature  and  man  which  every  true  poet  must  feel, 
Pope's  verse  is  artificial ;  and  its  style  of  expression  has  now  died 
out.  It  was  one  of  the  chief  missions  of  Wordsworth  to  drive  the 
Popian  second-hand  vocabulary  out  of  existence. 


15.  James  Thomson  (1700-1748),  the  poet  of  The  Seasons,  was 
born  at  Ednam  in  Roxburghshire,  Scotland,  in  the  year  1700.  He 
was  educated  at  the  grammar-school  of  Jedburgh,  and  then  at  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.  It  was  intended  that  he  should  enter  the 
ministry  of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  but,  before  his  college  course 
was  finished,  he  had  given  up  this  idea :  poetry  proved  for  him  too 
strong  a  magnet.  While  yet  a  young  man,  he  had  written  his  poem 
of  "Winter;  and,  with  that  in  his  pocket,  he  resolved  to  try  his 
fortune  in  London.  While  walking  about  the  streets,  looking  at  the 
shops,  and  gazing  at  the  new  wonders  of  the  vast  metropolis,  his 
pocket  was  picked  of  his  pocket-handkerchief  and  his  letters  of 
introduction ;  and  he  found  himself  alone  in  London  —  thrown 
entirely  on  his  own  resources.  A  publisher  was,  however,  in  time 
found  for  Winter ;  and  the  poem  slowly  rose  into  appreciation  and 
popularity.  This  was  in  1726.  Next  year,  Summer;  two  years 
after,  Spring  appeared  ;  while  Autumn,  in  1730,  completed  the 
Seasons.  The  Castle  of  Indolence — a  poem  in  the  Spenserian 
stanza — appeared  in  1748.  In  the  same  year  he  was  appointed 
Surveyor-General  of  the  Leeward  Islands,  though  he  never  visited 
the  scene  of  his  duty,  but  had  his  work  done  by  deputy.  He  died 
at  Kew  in  the  year  1748. 


398  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

16.  Thomson's  place  as  a  poet  is  high  in  the  second  rank.  His 
Seasons  have  always  been  popular ;  and,  when  Coleridge  found  a 
well-thumbed  and  thickly  dog's-eared  copy  lying  on  the  window-sill 
of  a  country  inn,  he  exclaimed  "  This  is  true  fame  ! "  His  Castle 
of  Indolence  is,  however,  a  finer  piece  of  poetical  work  than  any 
of  his  other  writings.  The  first  canto  is  the  best.  But  the  Seasons 
have  been  much  more  widely  read ;  and  a  modern  critic  says  :  "  No 
poet  has  given  the  special  pleasure  which  poetry  is  capable  of  giving 
to  so  large  a  number  of  persons  in  so  large  a  measure  as  Thomson." 
Thomson  is  very  unequal  in  his  style.  Sometimes  he  rises  to  a  great 
height  of  inspired  expression  ;  at  other  times  he  sinks  to  a  dull  dead 
level  of  pedestrian  prose.  His  power  of  describing  scenery  is  often 
very  remarkable.  Professor  Craik  says :  "  There  is  no  other  poet 
who  surrounds  us  with  so  much  of  the  truth  of  nature ; "  and  he 
calls  the  Castle  of  Indolence  "  one  of  the  gems  of  the  language." 


17.  Thomas  Gray  (1716-1771),  the  greatest  elegiac  poet  of  the 
century,  was  born  in  London  in  1716.  His  father  was  a  "money- 
scrivener,"  as  it  was  called ;  in  other  words,  he  was  a  stock- 
broker. His  mother's  brother  was  an  assistant  -  master  at  Eton  ; 
and  at  Eton,  under  the  care  of  this  uncle,  Gray  was  brought 
up.  One  of  his  schoolfellows  was  the  famous  Horace  Wal- 
pole.  After  leaving  school,  Gray  proceeded  to  Cambridge  ;  but, 
instead  of  reading  mathematics,  he  studied  classical  literature, 
history,  and  modern  languages,  and  never  took  his  degree.  After 
some  years  spent  at  Cambridge,  he  entered  himself  of  the  Inner 
Temple  ;  but  he  never  gave  much  time  to  the  study  of  law.  His 
father  died  in  1741;  and  Gray,  soon  after,  gave  up  the  law  and 
went  to  live  entirely  at  Cambridge.  The  first  published  of  his 
poems  was  the  Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College. 
The  Elegy  written  in  a  Country  Churchyard  was  handed  about 
in  manuscript  before  its  publication  in  1751 ;  and  it  made  his 
reputation  at  once.  In  1755  the  Progress  of  Poesy  was  published  ; 
and  the  ode  entitled  The  Bard  was  begun.  In  1768  he  was  ap- 
pointed Professor  of  Modern  History  at  Cambridge  ;  but,  though  he 
studied  hard,  he  never  lectured.  He  died  at  Cambridge,  at  the  age 
of  fifty-four,  in  the  year  1771.  Gray  was  never  married.  He  was 
said  by  those  who  knew  him  to  be  the  most  learned  man  of  his  time 
in  Europe.  Literature,  history,  and  several  sciences — all  were  thor- 
oughly known  to  him.  He  had  read  everything  in  the  world  that 
was  best  worth  reading  ;  while  his  knowledge  of  botany,  zoology, 
and  entomology  was  both  wide  and  exact. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  399 

18.  Gray's  Elegy  took  him  seven  years  to  write  ;  it  contains  thirty- 
two  stanzas ;  and  Mr  Palgrave  says  "  they  are  perhaps  the  noblest 
stanzas  in  the  language."  General  Wolfe,  when  sailing  down  to 
attack  Quebec,  recited  the  Elegy  to  his  officers,  and  declared,  "  Now, 
gentlemen,  I  would  rather  be  the  author  of  that  poem  than  take 
Quebec."  Lord  Byron  called  the  Elegy  "  the  corner-stone  of  Gray's 
poetry."  Gray  ranks  with  Milton  as  the  most  finished  workman  in 
English  verse  ;  and  certainly  he  spared  no  pains.  Gray  said  himself 
that  "  the  style  he  aimed  at  was  extreme  conciseness  of  expression, 
yet  pure,  perspicuous,  and  musical ; "  and  this  style,  at  which  he 
aimed,  he  succeeded  fully  in  achieving.  One  of  the  finest  stanzas 
in  the  whole  Elegy  is  the  last,  which  the  writer  omitted  in  all  the 
later  editions : — 

"  There  scattered  oft,  the  earliest  of  the  year, 

By  hands  unseen,  are  showers  of  violets  found ; 
The  red-breast  loves  to  build  and  warble  there, 
And  little  footsteps  lightly  print  the  ground." 


19.  William  Collins  (1721-1759),  one  of  the  truest  lyrical  poets 
of  the  century,  was  born  at  Chichester  on  Christmas-day,  1721. 
He  was  educated  at  Winchester  School;  afterwards  at  Queen's, 
and  also  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  Before  he  left  school  he 
had  written  a  set  of  poems  called  Persian  Eclogues.  He  left 
the  university  with  a  reputation  for  ability  and  for  indolence ; 
went  to  London  "  with  many  projects  in  his  head  and  little  money 
in  his  pocket;"  and  there  found  a  kind  and  fast  friend  in  Dr 
Johnson.  His  Odes  appeared  in  1747.  The  volume  fell  still- 
born from  the  press  :  not  a  single  copy  was  sold  ;  no  one  bought, 
read,  or  noticed  it.  In  a  fit  of  furious  despair,  the  unhappy  author 
called  in  the  whole  edition  and  burnt  every  copy  with  his  own 
hands.  And  yet  it  was,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  songs  of 
Burns,  the  truest  poetry  that  had  appeared  in  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  A  great  critic  says :  "  In  the  little  book  there 
was  hardly  a  single  false  note  :  there  was,  above  all  things,  a  purity 
of  music,  a  clarity  of  style,  to  which  I  know  of  no  parallel  in 
English  verse  from  the  death  of  Andrew  Marvell  to  the  birth  of 
William  Blake."  Soon  after  this  great  disappointment  he  went  to 
live  at  Richmond,  where  he  formed  a  friendship  with  Thomson 
and  other  poets.  In  1749  he  wrote  the  Ode  on  the  Death  of 
Thomson,  beginning — 

"In  yonder  grave  a  Druid  lies" — 
one  of  the  finest  of  his  poems.     Not  long  after,  he  was  attacked  by  a 


400  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

disease  of  the  brain,  from  which  he  suffered,  at  intervals,  during  the 
remainder  of  his  short  life.  He  died  at  Chichester  in  1759,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-eight. 

20.  Collins's  best  poem  is  the  Ode  to  Evening ;  his  most  elab- 
orate, the  Ode  on  the  Passions ;  and  his  best  known,  the  Ode 
beginning — 

"  How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blessed  ! " 

His  latest  and  best  critic  says  of  his  poems  :  "  His  range  of 
flight  was  perhaps  the  narrowest,  but  assuredly  the  highest,  of 
his  generation.  He  could  not  be  taught  singing  like  a  finch,  but 
he  struck  straight  upward  for  the  sun  like  a  lark.  .  .  .  The  direct 
sincerity  and  purity  of  their  positive  and  straightforward  inspiration 
will  always  keep  his  poems  fresh  and  sweet  in  the  senses  of  all  men. 
He  was  a  solitary  song-bird  among  many  more  or  less  excellent 
pipers  and  pianists.  He  could  put  more  spirit  of  colour  into  a  single 
stroke,  more  breath  of  music  into  a  single  note,  than  could  all  the 
rest  of  his  generation  into  all  the  labours  of  their  lives." 


401 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE   SECOND   HALF    OP   THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 

1.  Prose  -  Writers. — The  four  greatest  prose-writers  of  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  are  Johnson,  Goldsmith, 
Burke,  and  Gibbon.  Dr  Johnson  was  the  most  prominent 
literary  figure  in  London  at  this  period  ;  and  filled  in  his  own 
time  much  the  same  position  in  literary  circles  as  Carlyle  held 
later  on.  He  wrote  on  many  subjects — but  chiefly  on  literature 
and  morals;  and  hence  he  was  called  "The  Great  Moralist." 
Goldsmith  stands  out  clearly  as  the  writer  of  the  most  pleasant 
and  easy  prose ;  his  pen  was  ready  for  any  subject ;  and  it  has 
been  said  of  him  with  perfect  truth,  that  he  touched  nothing 
that  he  did  not  adorn.  Burke  was  the  most  eloquent  writer 
of  his  time,  and  by  far  the  greatest  political  thinker  that 
England  has  ever  produced.  He  is  known  by  an  essay  he 
wrote  when  a  very  young  man — on  "  The  Sublime  and  Beauti- 
ful " ;  but  it  is  to  his  speeches  and  political  writings  that  we 
must  look  for  his  noblest  thoughts  and  most  eloquent  language. 
Gibbon  is  one  of  the  greatest  historians  and  most  powerful 
writers  the  world  has  ever  seen. 


2.  Samuel  Johnson  (1709-1784),  the  great  essayist  and  lexico- 
grapher, was  born  at  Lichfield  in  the  year  1709.  His  father  was  a 
bookseller ;  and  it  was  in  his  father's  shop  that  Johnson  acquired 
his  habit  of  omnivorous  reading,  or  rather  devouring  of  books.  The 
mistress  of  the  dame's  school,  to  which  he  first  went,  declared  him 


402  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

to  be  the  best  scholar  she  ever  had.  After  a  few  years  at  the  free 
grammar-school  of  Lichfield,  and  one  year  at  Stourbridge,  he  went 
to  Pembroke  College,  Oxford,  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  Here  he  did 
not  confine  himself  to  the  studies  of  the  place,  but  indulged  in  a 
wide  range  of  miscellaneous  reading.  He  was  too  poor  to  take  a 
degree,  and  accordingly  left  Oxford  without  graduating.  After 
acting  for  some  time  as  a  bookseller's  hack,  he  married  a  Mrs  Porter 
of  Birmingham — a  widow  with  £800.  With  this  money  he  opened  a 
boarding-school,  or  "  academy  "  as  he  called  it ;  but  he  had  never  more 
than  three  scholars — the  most  famous  of  whom  was  the  celebrated 
player,  David  Garrick.  In  1737  he  went  up  to  London,  and  for 
the  next  quarter  of  a  century  struggled  for  a  living  by  the  aid  of 
his  pen.  During  the  first  ten  years  of  his  London  life  he  wrote 
chiefly  for  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine.'  In  1738  his  London — 
a  poem  in  heroic  metre — appeared.  In  1747  he  began  his  famous 
Dictionary;  it  was  completed  in  1755;  and  the  University  of 
Oxford  conferred  on  him  the  honorary  degree  of  M.A.  In  1749  he 
wrote  another  poem — also  in  heroic  metre — the  '  Vanity  of  Human 
Wishes.'  In  1750  he  had  begun  the  periodical  that  raised  his  fame 
to  its  full  height — a  periodical  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  The 
Rambler.  It  appeared  twice  a- week ;  and  Dr  Johnson  wrote 
every  article  in  it  for  two  years.  In  1759  he  published  the  short 
novel  called  Rasselas :  it  was  written  to  defray  the  expenses  of  his 
mother's  funeral ;  and  he  wrote  it  "  in  the  evenings  of  a  week." 
The  year  1762  saw  him  with  a  pension  from  the  Government  of 
£300  a-year ;  and  henceforth  he  was  free  from  heavy  hack-work  and 
literary  drudgery,  and  could  give  himself  up  to  the  largest  enjoy- 
ment of  that  for  which  he  cared  most — social  conversation.  He  was 
the  best  talker  of  his  time ;  and  he  knew  everybody  worth  knowing 
— Burke,  Goldsmith,  Gibbon,  the  great  painter  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds, 
and  many  other  able  men.  In  1764  he  founded  the  "  Literary  Club," 
which  still  exists  and  meets  in  London.  Oddly  enough,  although  a 
prolific  writer,  it  is  to  another  person — to  Mr  James  Boswell,  who 
first  met  him  in  1763 — that  he  owes  his  greatest  and  most  lasting 
fame.  A  much  larger  number  of  persons  read  Boswell's  Life  of 
Johnson — one  of  the  most  entertaining  books  in  all  literature — 
than  Johnson's  own  works.  Between  the  years  1779  and  1781 
appeared  his  last  and  ablest  work,  The  Lives  of  the  Poets,  which 
were  written  as  prefaces  to  a  collective  edition  of  the  English  Poets, 
published  by  several  London  booksellers.     He  died  in  1784. 

3.  Johnson's  earlier  style  was  full  of  Latin  words  ;  his  later  style 
is  more  purely  English  than  most  of  the  journalistic  writing  of  the 
present  day.     His  Rambler  is  full  of  "  long-tailed  words  in  osity  and 


SECOND  HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  403 

ation;"  but  his '  Lives  of  the  Poets '  is  written  in  manly,  vigorous,  and 
idiomatic  English.  In  verse,  he  occupies  a  place  between  Pope  and 
Goldsmith,  and  is  one  of  the  masters  in  the  "didactic  school"  of 
English  poetry.  His  rhythm  and  periods  are  swelling  and  sonorous ; 
and  here  and  there  he  equals  Pope  in  the  terseness  and  condensation 
of  his  language.     The  following  is  a  fair  specimen  : — 

"  Of  all  the  griefs  that  harass  the  distressed, 
Sure  the  most  bitter  is  a  scornful  jest ; 
Fate  never  wounds  more  deep  the  generous  heart, 
Than  when  a  blockhead's  insult  points  the  dart." 


4.  Oliver  Goldsmith  (1728-1774),  poet,  essayist,  historian,  and 
dramatist,  was  born  at  Pallas,  in  the  county  of  Longford,  Ireland,  in 
the  year  1728.  His  father  was  an  Irish  clergyman,  careless,  good- 
hearted,  and  the  original  of  the  famous  Dr  Primrose,  in  The  Vicar 
of  Wakefield.  He  was  also  the  original  of  the  "  village  preacher  * 
in  The  Deserted  Village. 

"  A  man  he  was  to  all  the  country  dear, 
And  passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a-year." 

Oliver  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin ;  but  he  left  it 
with  no  fixed  aim.  He  thought  of  law,  and  set  off  for  London,  but 
spent  all  his  money  in  Dublin.  He  thought  of  medicine,  and  resided 
two  years  in  Edinburgh.  He  started  for  Leyden,  in  Holland,  to 
continue  what  he  called  his  medical  studies  ;  but  he  had  a  thirst  to 
see  the  world — and  so,  with  a  guinea  in  his  pocket,  one  shirt,  and  a 
flute,  he  set  out  on  his  travels  through  the  continent  of  Europe.  At 
length,  on  the  1st  of  February  1756,  he  landed  at  Dover,  after  an 
absence  of  two  years,  without  a  farthing  in  his  pocket.  London 
reached,  he  tried  many  ways  of  making  a  living,  as  assistant  to  an 
apothecary,  physician,  reader  for  the  press,  usher  in  a  school,  writer 
in  journals.  His  first  work  was  'An  Inquiry  into  the  State  of 
Polite  Learning  in  Europe,'  in  1759  ;  but  it  appeared  without  his 
name.  From  that  date  he  wrote  books  of  all  kinds,  poems,  and 
plays.  He  died  in  his  chambers  in  Brick  Court,  Temple,  London,  in 
1774. 

5.  Goldsmith's  best  poems  are  The  Traveller  and  The  Deserted 
Village, — both  written  in  the  Popian  couplet.  His  best  play  is 
She  Stoops  to  Conquer.  His  best  prose  work  is  The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield,  "the  first  genuine  novel  of  domestic  life."  He  also 
wrote  histories  of  England,  of  Rome,  of  Animated  Nature.  All 
this  was  done  as  professional,  nay,  almost  as   hack  work ;    but 


404  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

always  in  a  very  pleasant,  lively,  and  readable  style.  Ease,  grace, 
charm,  naturalness,  pleasant  rhythm,  purity  of  diction — these  were 
the  chief  characteristics  of  his  writings.  "  Almost  to  all  things  could 
he  turn  his  hand  " — poem,  essay,  play,  story,  history,  natural  science. 
Even  when  satirical,  he  was  good-natured  ;  and  his  Retaliation  is 
the  friendliest  and  pleasantest  of  satires.  In  his  poetry,  his  words 
seem  artless,  but  are  indeed  delicately  chosen  with  that  consummate 
art  which  conceals  and  effaces  itself:  where  he  seems  most  simple 
and  easy,  there  he  has  taken  most  pains  and  given  most  labour. 


6.  Edmund  Burke  (1729-1797)  was  born  at  Dublin  in  the  year 
1729.  He  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin;  and  in  1747 
was  entered  of  the  Middle  Temple,  with  the  purpose  of  reading 
for  the  Bar.  In  1765  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  enter  Parliament 
as  member  for  Wendover,  in  Buckinghamshire ;  and  he  sat  in 
the  House  of  Commons  for  nearly  thirty  years.  While  in  Par- 
liament, he  worked  hard  to  obtain  justice  for  the  colonists  of 
North  America,  and  to  avert  the  separation  of  them  from  the 
mother  country;  and  also  to  secure  good  government  for  India. 
At  the  close  of  his  life,  it  was  his  intention  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Peers  as  Earl  Beaconsfield— the  title  afterwards  assumed  by 
Mr  Disraeli;  but  the  death  of  his  son,  and  only  child — for  whom 
the  honour  was  really  meant  and  wished — quite  broke  his  heart, 
and  he  never  carried  out  his  purpose.  He  died  at  Beaconsfield  in 
the  year  1797.  The  lines  of  Goldsmith  on  Burke,  in  his  poem  of 
"  Retaliation,"  are  well  known  : — 

"  Here  lies  our  good  Edmund,  whose  genius  was  such 
We  scarcely  can  praise  it  or  blame  it  too  much ; 
Who,  born  for  the  universe,  narrowed  his  mind, 
And  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind ; 
Who,  too  deep  for  his  hearers,  still  went  on  refining, 
And  thought  of  convincing  while  they  thought  of  dining." 

7.  Burke's  most  famous  writings  are  Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of 
the  present  Discontents,  published  in  1773 ;  Reflections  on  the 
French  Revolution  (1790) ;  and  the  Letters  on  a  Regicide 
Peace  (1797).  His  "  Thoughts  "  is  perhaps  the  best  of  his  works  in 
point  of  style  ;  his  "  Reflections,"  are  full  of  passages  of  the  highest 
and  most  noble  eloquence.  Burke  has  been  described  by  a  great  critic 
as  "  the  supreme  writer  of  the  century ; "  and  Macaulay  says,  that 
"  in  richness  of  imagination,  he  is  superior  to  every  orator  ancient 
and  modern."  In  the  power  of  expressing  thought  in  the  strongest, 
fullest,  and  most  vivid  manner,  he  must  be  classed  with  Shakespeare 


SECOND  HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  405 

and  Bacon — and  with  these  writers  when  at  their  best.  He  indulges 
in  repetitions  ;  but  the  repetitions  are  never  monotonous  ;  they  serve 
to  place  the  subject  in  every  possible  point  of  view,  and  to  enable  us 
to  see  all  sides  of  it.  He  possessed  an  enormous  vocabulary,  and  had 
the  fullest  power  over  it ;  "  never  was  a  man  under  whose  hands 
language  was  more  plastic  and  ductile."  He  is  very  fond  of  met- 
aphor, and  is  described  by  an  able  critic  as  "  the  greatest  master  of 
metaphor  that  the  world  has  ever  seen." 


8.  Edward  Gibbon  (1737-1794),  the  second  great  prose-writer 
of  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  born  at  Putney, 
London,  in  1737.  His  father  was  a  wealthy  landowner.  Young 
Gibbon  was  a  very  sickly  child — the  only  survivor  of  a  delicate 
family  of  seven  ;  he  was  left  to  pass  his  time  as  he  pleased,  and 
for  the  most  part  to  educate  himself.  But  he  had  the  run  of 
several  good  libraries  ;  and  he  was  an  eager  and  never  satiated  reader. 
He  was  sent  to  Oxford  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen  ;  and  so  full  was  his 
knowledge  in  some  directions,  and  so  defective  in  others,  that  he 
went  there,  he  tells  us  himself,  "with  a  stock  of  knowledge  that 
might  have  puzzled  a  doctor,  and  a  degree  of  ignorance  of  which  a 
schoolboy  would  have  been  ashamed."  He  was  very  fond  of  dis- 
putation while  at  Oxford;  and  the  Dons  of  the  University  were 
astonished  to  see  the  pathetic  "  thin  little  figure,  with  a  large  head, 
disputing  and  arguing  with  the  greatest  ability."  In  the  course 
of  his  reading,  he  lighted  on  some  French  and  English  books  that 
convinced  him  for  the  time  of  the  truth  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith ;  he  openly  professed  his  change  of  belief ;  and  this  obliged 
him  to  leave  the  University.  His  father  sent  him  to  Lausanne, 
and  placed  him  under  the  care  of  a  Swiss  clergyman  there,  whose 
arguments  were  at  length  successful  in  bringing  him  back  to  a 
belief  in  Protestantism.  On  his  return  to  England  in  1758,  he 
lived  in  his  father's  house  in  Hampshire  ;  read  largely,  as  usual ; 
but  also  joined  the  Hampshire  militia  as  captain  of  a  company,  and 
the  exercises  and  manoeuvres  of  his  regiment  gave  him  an  insight 
into  military  matters  which  was  afterwards  useful  to  him  when 
he  came  to  write  history.  He  published  his  first  work  in  1761.  It 
was  an  essay  on  the  study  of  literature,  and  was  written  in  French. 
In  1770  his  father  died  ;  he  came  into  a  fortune,  entered  Parliament, 
where  he  sat  for  eight  years,  but  never  spoke  ;  and,  in  1776,  he 
began  his  history  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire. This,  by  far  the  greatest  of  his  works,  was  not  completed  till 
1787,  and  was  published  in  1788,  on  his  fifty-first  birthday.     His 


406  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

account  of  the  completion  of  the  work — it  was  finished  at  Lausanne, 
where  he  had  lived  for  six  years — is  full  of  beauty :  "  It  was  on  the 
day,  or  rather  night,  of  June  27, 1787,  between  the  hours  of  eleven 
and  twelve,  that  I  wrote  the  last  lines  of  the  last  page  in  a  summer- 
house  in  my  garden.  After  laying  down  my  pen,  I  took  several 
turns  in  a  covered  walk  of  acacias,  which  commands  a  prospect  of 
the  country,  the  lake,  and  the  mountains.  The  air  was  temperate, 
the  sky  was  serene.  The  silver  orb  of  the  moon  was  reflected  from 
the  waters,  and  all  nature  was  silent.  I  will  not  describe  the  first 
emotion  of  joy  on  the  recovery  of  my  freedom,  and  perhaps  the 
establishment  of  my  fame.  But  my  pride  was  soon  humbled,  and 
a  sober  melancholy  was  spread  over  my  mind  by  the  idea  that  I  had 
taken  an  everlasting  leave  of  an  old  and  agreeable  companion,  and 
that,  whatever  might  be  the  future  fate  of  my  history,  the  life  of 
the  historian  must  be  short  and  precarious."  Gibbon  died  in  1794, 
about  one  year  before  the  birth  of  another  great  historian,  Grote,  the 
author  of  the  '  History  of  Greece.' 

9.  Gibbon's  book  is  one  of  the  great  historical  works  of  the  world. 
It  covers  a  space  of  about  thirteen  centuries,  from  the  reign  of 
Trajan  (98),  to  the  fall  of  the  Eastern  Empire  in  1453  ;  and  the 
amount  of  reading  and  study  required  to  write  it,  must  have  been 
almost  beyond  the  power  of  our  conceiving.  The  skill  in  arranging 
and  disposing  the  enormous  mass  of  matter  in  his  history  is  also 
unparalleled.  His  style  is  said  by  a  critic  to  be  "  copious,  splendid, 
elegantly  rounded,  distinguished  by  supreme  artificial  skill."  It  is 
remarkable  for  the  proportion  of  Latin  words  employed.  While 
some  parts  of  our  translation  of  the  Bible  contain  as  much  as  96 
per  cent  of  pure  English  words,  Gibbon  has  only  58  per  cent :  the 
rest,  or  42  per  cent,  are  words  of  Latin  origin.  In  fact,  of  all  our 
great  English  writers,  Gibbon  stands  lowest  in  his  use  of  pure  English 
words  ;  and  the  two  writers  who  come  nearest  him  in  this  respect 
are  Johnson  and  Swift.  The  great  Greek  scholar,  Professor  Porson, 
said  of  Gibbon's  style,  that  "  there  could  not  be  a  better  exercise  for 
a  schoolboy  than  to  turn  a  page  of  it  into  English." 

10.  Poets. — The  chief  poets  of  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  belong  to  a  new  world,  and  show  very  little  trace  in 
their  writings  of  eighteenth-century  culture,  ideas,  or  prejudices. 
Most  of  the  best  poets  who  were  born  in  this  half  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  and  began  to  write  in  it — such  as  Crabbe  and 
Wordsworth — are  true  denizens,  in  the  character  of  their  minds 
and  feelings,  of  the  nineteenth.      The  greatest  poets  of  the 


SECOND   HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  407 

period  are  Cowper,  Crabbe,  and  Burns ;  and  along  with  these 
may  be  mentioned  as  little  inferior,  Chatterton  and  Blake, 
two  of  the  most  original  poets  that  have  appeared  in  any 
literature. 

11.  William  Cowper  (1731-1800),  one  of  the  truest,  purest,  and 
sweetest  of  English  poets,  was  born  at  Great  Berkhampstead,  in 
Hertfordshire,  in  1731.  His  father,  Dr  Cowper,  who  was  a  nephew 
of  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper,  was  rector  of  the  parish,  and  chaplain 
to  George  II.  Young  Cowper  was  educated  at  Westminster  School ; 
and  "the  great  proconsul  of  India,"  Warren  Hastings,  was  one 
of  his  schoolfellows.  After  leaving  Westminster,  he  was  entered 
of  the  Middle  Temple,  and  was  also  articled  to  a  solicitor.  At  the 
age  of  thirty-one  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  Clerks  to  the  House  of 
Lords  ;  but  he  was  so  terribly  nervous  and  timid,  that  he  threw  up  the 
appointment.  He  was  next  appointed  Clerk  of  the  Journals — a  post 
which  even  the  shyest  man  might  hold ;  but,  when  he  found  that  he 
would  have  to  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords,  he  went  home 
and  attempted  to  commit  suicide.  When  at  school,  he  had  been  ter- 
ribly and  persistently  bullied ;  and,  about  this  time,  his  mind  had 
been  somewhat  affected  by  a  disappointment  in  love.  The  form  of 
his  insanity  was  melancholia  ;  and  he  had  several  long  and  severe 
attacks  of  the  same  disease  in  the  after-course  of  his  life.  He  had  to 
be  placed  in  the  keeping  of  a  physician;  and  it  was  only  after  fifteen 
months'  seclusion  that  he  was  able  to  face  the  world.  Giving  up  all 
idea  of  professional  or  of  public  Hfe,  he  went  to  live  at  Huntingdon 
with  the  Unwins  ;  and,  after  the  death  of  Mr  Unwin,  he  removed 
with  Mrs  Unwin  to  Olney,  in  Buckinghamshire.  Here,  in  1773, 
another  attack  of  melancholia  came  upon  him.  In  1779,  Cowper 
joined  with  Mr  Newton,  the  curate  of  the  parish,  in  publishing  the 
Olney  Hymns,  of  which  he  wrote  sixty-eight.  But  it  was  not  till 
he  was  past  fifty  years  of  age  that  he  betook  himself  seriously  to  the 
writing  of  poetry.  His  first  volume,  which  contained  Table-Talk, 
Conversation,  Retirement,  and  other  poems  in  heroic  metre,  ap- 
peared in  1782.  His  second  volume,  which  included  The  Task  and 
John  Gilpin,  was  published  in  1785.  His  translation  of  the  Iliad 
and  Odyssey  of  Homer — a  translation  into  blank  verse,  which  he 
wrote  at  the  regular  rate  of  forty  lines  a-day — was  published  in  1791. 
Mrs  Unwin  now  had  a  shock  of  paralysis  ;  Cowper  himself  was  again 
seized  with  mental  illness;  and  from  1791  till  his  death  in  1800, 
his  condition  was  one  of  extreme  misery,  depression,  and  despair. 
He  thought  himself  an  outcast  from  the  mercy  of  God.     "  I  seem  to 


408  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

myself/'  lie  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  to  be  scrambling  always  in  the  dark, 
among  rocks  and  precipices,  without  a  guide,  but  with  an  enemy  ever 
at  my  heels,  prepared  to  push  me  headlong."  The  cloud  never  lifted ; 
gloom  and  dejection  enshrouded  all  his  later  years  ;  a  pension  of 
£300  a-year  from  George  III.  brought  him  no  pleasure  ;  and  he  died 
insane,  at  East  Dereham,  in  Norfolk,  in  the  year  1800.  In  the  poem 
of  The  Castaway  he  compares  himself  to  a  drowning  sailor  : — 

'*  No  voice  divine  the  storm  allayed, 

No  light  propitious  shone, 
When,  far  from  all  effectual  aid, 

We  perished — each  alone — 
But  I  beneath  a  rougher  sea, 
And  whelmed  in  blacker  gulfs  than  he." 

12.  His  greatest  work  is  The  Task;  and  the  best  poem  in  it  is 
probably  "  The  Winter  Evening."  His  best-known  poem  is  John 
Gilpin,  which,  like  "  The  Task,"  he  wrote  at  the  request  of  his 
friend,  Lady  Austen.  His  most  powerful  poem  is  The  Castaway. 
He  always  writes  in  clear,  crisp,  pleasant,  and  manly  English.  He 
himself  says,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  :  "  Perspicuity  is  always  more 
than  half  the  battle.  .  .  A  meaning  that  does  not  stare  you  in  the 
face  is  as  bad  as  no  meaning  ; "  and  this  direction  he  himself  always 
carried  out.  Cowper's  poems  mark  a  new  era  in  poetry  ;  his  style 
is  new,  and  his  ideas  are  new.  He  is  no  follower  of  Pope  ;  Southey 
compared  Pope  and  Cowper  as  "  formal  gardens  in  comparison 
with  woodland  scenery."  He  is  always  original,  always  true — 
true  to  his  own  feeling,  and  true  to  the  object  he  is  describing. 
"  My  descriptions,"  he  writes  of  "  The  Task,"  "  are  all  from  nature  ; 
not  one  of  them  second-handed.  My  delineations  of  the  heart  are 
from  my  own  experience."  Everywhere  in  his  poems  we  find  a 
genuine  love  of  nature ;  humour  and  pathos  in  his  description  of 
persons;  and  a  purity  and  honesty  of  style  that  have  never  been 
surpassed.  Many  of  his  well-put  lines  have  passed  into  our  common 
stock  of  everyday  quotations.     Such  are — 

"  God  made  the  country,  and  man  made  the  town." 

"  Variety's  the  very  spice  of  life 
That  gives  it  all  its  flavour." 

"  The  heart 
May  give  a  useful  lesson  to  the  head, 
And  Learning  wiser  grow  without  his  books." 

"  Beware  of  desperate  steps.     The  darkest  day, 
Live  till  to-morrow,  will  have  passed  away." 


SECOND   HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  409 

13.  George  Crabbe  (1754-1832),  the  poet  of  the  poor,  was  born 
at  Aldborough,  in  Suffolk,  on  Christmas  Eve  of  the  year  1754.  He 
stands  thus  midway  between  Goldsmith  and  Wordsworth — mid- 
way between  the  old  and  the  new  school  of  poetry.  His  father 
was  salt-master  —  or  collector  of  salt  duties — at  the  little  seaport. 
After  being  taught  a  little  at  several  schools,  it  was  agreed  that 
George  should  be  made  a  surgeon.  He  was  accordingly  apprenticed ; 
but  he  was  fonder  of  writing  verses  than  of  attending  cases.  His 
memory  for  poetry  was  astonishing ;  he  had  begun  to  write  verses 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  ;  and  he  filled  the  drawers  of  the  surgery  with 
his  poetical  attempts.  After  a  time  he  set  up  for  himself  in  practice 
at  Aldborough  ;  but  most  of  his  patients  were  poor  people  and  pool 
relations,  who  paid  him  neither  for  his  physic  nor  his  advice.  In 
1779  he  resolved  "to  go  to  London  and  venture  all."  Accordingly, 
he  took  a  berth  on  board  of  a  sailing-packet,  carrying  with  him  a 
little  money  and  a  number  of  manuscript  poems.  But  nothing  suc- 
ceeded with  him ;  he  was  reduced  to  his  last  eightpence.  In  this 
strait,  he  wrote  to  the  great  statesman,  Edmund  Burke  ;  and,  while 
the  answer  was  coming,  he  walked  all  night  up  and  down  West- 
minster Bridge.  Burke  took  him  in  to  his  own  house  and  found 
a  publisher  for  his  poems. 

14.  In  1781  The  Library  appeared ;  and  in  the  same  year 
Crabbe  entered  the  Church.  In  1783  he  published  The  Village— 
a  poem  which  Dr  Johnson  revised  for  him.  This  work  won  for  him 
an  established  reputation  ;  but,  for  twenty-four  years  after,  Crabbe 
gave  himself  up  entirely  to  the  care  of  his  parish,  and  published 
only  one  poem — The  Newspaper.  In  1807  appeared  The  Parish 
Register;  in  1810,  The  Borough;  in  1812,  Tales  in  Verse; 
and,  in  1819,  his  last  poetical  work,  Tales  of  the  Hall.  From  this 
time,  till  his  death  in  1832 — thirteen  years  after — he  produced  no  other 
poem.  Personally,  he  was  one  of  the  noblest  and  kindest  of  men  ; 
he  was  known  as  "  the  gentleman  with  the  sour  name  and  the  sweet 
countenance ; "  and  he  spent  most  of  his  income  on  the  wants  of  others. 

15.  Crabbe's  poetical  work  forms  a  prominent  landmark  in 
English  literature.  His  style  is  the  style  of  the  eighteenth  century 
— with  a  strong  admixture  of  his  own ;  his  way  of  thinking,  and  the 
objects  he  selects  for  description,  belong  to  the  nineteenth.  While 
Pope  depicted  "  the  town,"  politics,  and  abstract  moralities,  Crabbe 
describes  the  country  and  the  country  poor,  social  matters,  real  life — 
the  lowest  and  poorest  life,  and  more  especially,  the  intense  misery 
of  the  village  population  of  his  time  in  the  eastern  counties — 

"the  wild  amphibious  race 
With  sullen  woe  displayed  in  every  foce." 


410  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

He  does  not  paint  the  lot  of  the  poor  with  the  rose-coloured  tints 
used  by  Goldsmith  ;  he  boldly  denies  the  existence  of  such  a  village 
as  Auburn  ;  he  groups  such  places  with  Eden,  and  says — 

"Auburn  and  Eden  can  be  found  no  more;" 

he  shows  the  gloomy,  hard,  despairing  side  of  English  country  life. 
He  has  been  called  a  "  Pope  in  worsted  stockings,"  and  "  the  Hogarth 
of  song."     Byron  describes  him  as 

"Nature's  sternest  painter,  yet  the  best." 

Now  and  then  his  style  is  flat,  and  even  coarse  ;  but  there  is  every- 
where a  genuine  power  of  strong  and  bold  painting.  He  is  also 
an  excellent  master  of  easy  dialogue. 

All  of  his  poems  are  written  in  the  Popian  couplet  of  two  ten- 
syllabled  lines. 


16.  Robert  Burns  (1759-1796),  the  greatest  poet  of  Scotland,  was 
born  in  Ayrshire,  two  miles  from  the  town  of  Ayr,  in  1759.  The 
only  education  he  received  from  his  father  was  the  schooling  of  a 
few  months  ;  but  the  family  were  fond  of  reading,  and  Robert  was 
the  most  enthusiastic  reader  of  them  all.  Every  spare  moment  he 
could  find — and  they  were  not  many — he  gave  to  reading  ;  he  sat  at 
meals  "  with  a  book  in  one  hand  and  a  spoon  in  the  other ; "  and  in 
this  way  he  read  most  of  the  great  English  poets  and  prose-writers. 
This  was  an  excellent  education — one  a  great  deal  better  than  most 
people  receive  ;  and  some  of  our  greatest  men  have  had  no  better. 
But,  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  had  to  toil  on  his  father's  farm  from 
early  morning  till  late  at  night.  In  the  intervals  of  his  work  he  con- 
trived, by  dint  of  thrift  and  industry,  to  learn  French,  mathematics, 
and  a  little  Latin.  On  the  death  of  his  father,  he  took  a  small  farm, 
but  did  not  succeed.  He  was  on  the  point  of  embarking  for  Jamaica, 
where  a  post  had  been  found  for  him,  when  the  news  of  the  success- 
ful sale  of  a  small  volume  of  his  poems  reached  him  ;  and  he  at  once 
changed  his  mind,  and  gave  up  all  idea  of  emigrating.  His  friends 
obtained  for  him  a  post  as  exciseman,  in  which  his  duty  was  to 
gauge  the  quantity  and  quality  of  ardent  spirits  —  a  post  full  of 
dangers  to  a  man  of  his  excitable  and  emotional  temperament.  He 
went  a  great  deal  into  what  was  called  society,  formed  the  acquaint- 
ance of  many  boon  companions,  acquired  habits  of  intemperance  that 
he  could  not  shake  off,  and  died  at  Dumfries  in  1796,  in  his  thirty- 
seventh  year. 

17.  His  best  poems  are  lyrical,  and  he  is  himself  one  of  the  fore- 


SECOND   HALF   OF  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  411 

most  lyrical  poets  in  the  world.  His  songs  have  probably  been  more 
sung,  and  in  more  parts  of  the  globe,  than  the  songs  of  any  other 
writer  that  ever  lived.  They  are  of  every  kind — songs  of  love,  war, 
mirth,  sorrow,  labour,  and  social  gatherings.  Professor  Craik  says : 
"  One  characteristic  that  belongs  to  whatever  Burns  has  written  is 
that,  of  its  kind  and  in  its  own  way,  it  is  a  perfect  production.  His 
poetry  is,  throughout,  real  emotion  melodiously  uttered,  instinct  with 
passion,  but  not  less  so  with  power  of  thought, — full  of  light  as  well 
as  of  fire."  Most  of  his  poems  are  written  in  the  North-English,  or 
Lowland  -  Scottish,  dialect.  The  most  elevated  of  his  poems  is 
The  Vision,  in  which  he  relates  how  the  Scottish  Muse  found  him 
at  the  plough,  and  crowned  him  with  a  wreath  of  holly.  One  of 
his  longest,  as  well  as  finest  poems,  is  The  Cottar's  Saturday 
Night,  which  is  written  in  the  Spenserian  stanza.  Perhaps  his 
most  pathetic  poem  is  that  entitled  To  Mary  in  Heaven.  It  is 
of  a  singular  eloquence,  elevation,  and  sweetness.  The  first  verse 
runs  thus — 

"  Thou  lingering  star,  with  lessening  ray, 

That  lov'st  to  greet  the  early  morn, 
Again  thou  usher'st  in  the  day 

My  Mary  from  ray  soul  was  torn. 
0  Mary  !   dear  departed  shade  ! 

Where  is  thy  place  of  blissful  rest  ? 
See'st  thou  thy  lover  lowly  laid? 

Hear'st  thou  the  groans  that  rend  his  breast?" 

He  is,  as  his  latest  critic  says,  "  the  poet  of  homely  human  nature  ;  " 
and  his  genius  shows  the  beautiful  elements  in  this  homeliness ;  and 
that  what  is  homely  need  not  therefore  be  dull  and  prosaic. 


18.  Thomas  Chatterton  and  William  Blake  are  two  minor 
poets,  of  whom  little  is  known  and  less  said,  but  whose  work  is  of 
the  most  poetical  and  genuine  kind. — Chatterton  was  born  at  Bristol 
in  the  year  1752.  He  was  the  son  of  a  schoolmaster,  who  died  before 
he  was  born.  He  was  educated  at  Colston's  Blue-Coat  School  in 
Bristol ;  and,  while  at  school,  read  his  way  steadily  through  every 
book  in  three  circulating  libraries.  He  began  to  write  verses  at  the 
age  of  fifteen,  and  in  two  years  had  produced  a  large  number  of  poems 
—some  of  them  of  the  highest  value.  In  1770,  he  came  up  to  Lon- 
don, with  something  under  five  pounds  in  his  pocket,  and  his  mind 
made  up  to  try  his  fortune  as  a  literary  man,  resolved,  though  he 
was  only  a  boy  of  seventeen,  to  live  by  literature  or  to  die.  Accord- 
ingly, he  set  to  work  and  wrote  every  kind  of  production — poems 


412  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

essays,  stories,  political  articles,  songs  for  public  singers ;  and  all  the 
time  he  was  half  starving.  A  loaf  of  bread  lasted  him  a  week  ;  and  it 
was  "  bought  stale  to  make  it  last  longer."  He  had  made  a  friend  of 
the  Lord  Mayor,  Beckford ;  but  before  he  had  time  to  hold  out  a  hand 
to  the  struggling  boy,  Beckford  died.  The  struggle  became  harder 
and  harder — more  and  more  hopeless  ;  his  neighbours  offered  a  little 
help — a  small  coin  or  a  meal — he  rejected  all ;  and  at  length,  on  the 
evening  of  the  24th  August  1770,  he  went  up  to  his  garret,  locked 
himself  in,  tore  up  all  his  manuscripts,  took  poison,  and  died.  He 
was  only  seventeen. 

19.  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  spoke  with  awe  of  his  genius; 
Keats  dedicated  one  of  his  poems  to  his  memory  ;  and  Coleridge 
copied  some  of  his  rhythms.  One  of  his  best  poems  is  the  Min- 
strel's Roundelay — 

"  0  sing  unto  my  roundelay, 

0  drop  the  briny  tear  with  me, 

Dance  no  more  on  holy-day, 

Like  a  running  river  be. 

My  love  is  dead, 

Gone  to  his  death -bed 

All  under  the  willow-tree. 

i 

"  Black  his  hair  as  the  winter  night, 
White  his  skin  as  the  summer  snow; 
Red  his  face  as  the  morning  light, 
Cold  he  lies  in  the  grave  below. 
My  love  is  dead, 
Gone  to  his  death-bed 
All  under  the  willow-tree." 


20.  William  Blake  (1757-1827),  one  of  the  most  original  poets 
that  ever  lived,  was  born  in  London  in  the  year  1757.  He  was 
brought  up  as  an  engraver  ;  worked  steadily  at  his  business,  and 
did  a  great  deal  of  beautiful  work  in  that  capacity.  He  in  fact 
illustrated  his  own  poems — each  page  being  set  in  a  fantastic  design 
of  his  own  invention,  which  he  himself  engraved.  He  was  also 
his  own  printer  and  publisher.  The  first  volume  of  his  poems  was 
published  in  1783  ;  the  Songs  of  Innocence,  probably  his  best, 
appeared  in  1789.  He  died  in  Fountain  Court,  Strand,  London, 
in  the  year  1827. 

21.  A  recent  critic  says  of  Blake  :  "  His  detachment  from  the 
ordinary  currents  of  practical  thought  left  to  his  mind  an  unspoiled 
and  delightful  simplicity  which  has  perhaps  never  been  matched  in 
English  poetry."     Simplicity — the  perfect  simplicity  of  a  child — 


SECOND   HALF  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  413 

beautiful  simplicity — simple  and  childlike  beauty, — such  is  the  chief 
note  of  the  poetry  of  Blake.  "  Where  he  is  successful,  his  work  has 
the  fresh  perfume  and  perfect  grace  of  a  flower."  The  most  remark- 
able point  about  Blake  is  that,  while  living  in  an  age  when  the  poetry 
of  Pope — and  that  alone  —  was  everywhere  paramount,  his  poems 
show  not  the  smallest  trace  of  Pope's  influence,  but  are  absolutely 
original.  His  work,  in  fact,  seems  to  be  the  first  bright  streak  of  the 
golden  dawn  that  heralded  the  approach  of  the  full  and  splendid 
daylight  of  the  poetry  of  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge,  of  Shelley  and 
Byron.  His  best-known  poems  are  those  from  the  '  Songs  of  Inno- 
cence ' — such  as  Piping  down  the  valleys  wild  ;  The  Lamb ;  The 
Tiger,  and  others.  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  element  in  Blake's 
poetry  is  the  sweetness  and  naturalness  of  the  rhythm.  It  seems 
careless,  but  it  is  always  beautiful ;  it  grows,  it  is  not  made  ;  it 
is  like  a  wild  field-flower  thrown  up  by  Nature  in  a  pleasant  green 
field.     Such  are  the  rhythms  in  the  poem  entitled  Night : — 

"  The  sun  descending  in  the  west, 
The  evening  star  does  shine ; 
The  birds  are  silent  in  their  nest, 
And  I  must  seek  for  mine. 
The  moon,  like  a  flower 
In  heaven's  high  bower, 
With  silent  delight 
Sits  and  smiles  on  the  night. 

"  Farewell,  green  fields  and  happy  grove, 
Where  flocks  have  ta'en  delight ; 
Where  lambs  have  nibbled,  silent  move 
The  feet  of  angels  bright: 
Unseen  they  pour  blessing, 
And  joy  without  ceasing, 
On  each  bud  and  blossom, 
On  each  sleeping  bosom." 


2f 


414 


CHAPTEK    VIII. 

THE    FIRST    HALF    OF    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

1.  New  Ideas. — The  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  are  alike  remarkable  for  the  new 
powers,  new  ideas,  and  new  life  thrown  into  society.  The 
coming  up  of  a  high  flood-tide  of  new  forces  seems  to  coincide 
with  the  beginning  of  the  French  Ee volution  in  1789,  when 
the  overthrow  of  the  Bastille  marked  the  downfall  of  the  old 
ways  of  thinking  and  acting,  and  announced  to  the  world  of 
Europe  and  America  that  the  old  regime — the  ancient  mode 
of  governing — was  over.  Wordsworth,  then  a  lad  of  nineteen, 
was  excited  by  the  event  almost  beyond  the  bounds  of  self- 
control.     He  says  in  his  "Excursion" — 

"  Bliss  was  it  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive. 
But  to  be  young  was  very  Heaven  ! " 

It  was,  indeed,  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  for  the  peoples  of 
Europe.  The  ideas  of  freedom  and  equality — of  respect  for 
man  as  man — were  thrown  into  popular  form  by  France ;  they 
became  living  powers  in  Europe;  and  in  England  they  ani- 
mated and  inspired  the  best  minds  of  the  time — Burns,  Cole- 
ridge, Wordsworth,  Shelley,  and  Byron.  Along  with  this  high 
tide  of  hope  and  emotion,  there  was  such  an  outburst  of  talent 
and  genius  in  every  kind  of  human  endeavour  in  England,  as 
was  never  seen  before  except  in  the  Elizabethan  period.  Great 
events  produced  great  powers ;  and  great  powers  in  their  turn 


FIRST  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  415 

brought  about  great  events.  The  war  with  America,  the  long 
struggle  with  Napoleon,  the  new  political  ideas,  great  victories 
by  sea  and  land, — all  these  were  to  be  found  in  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  English  race  produced  great 
men  in  numbers — almost,  it  might  be  said,  in  groups.  We  had 
great  leaders,  like  Nelson  and  "Wellington;  brilliant  generals, 
like  Sir  Charles  Napier  and  Sir  John  Moore  ;  great  statesmen, 
like  Fox  and  Pitt,  like  Washington  and  Franklin;  great  en- 
gineers, like  Stephenson  and  Brunei ;  and  great  poets,  like 
Wordsworth  and  Byron.  And  as  regards  literature,  an  able 
critic  remarks  :  "  We  have  recovered  in  this  century  the  Eliza- 
bethan magic  and  passion,  a  more  than  Elizabethan  sense  of 
the  beauty  and  complexity  of  nature,  the  Elizabethan  music  of 
language." 

2.  Great  Poets. — The  greatest  poets  of  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  may  be  best  arranged  in  groups.  There 
were  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Southey — commonly,  but 
unnecessarily,  described  as  the  Lake  Poets.  In  their  poetic 
thought  and  expression  they  had  little  in  common;  and  the 
fact  that  two  of  them  lived  most  of  their  lives  in  the  Lake 
country,  is  not  a  sufficient  justification  for  the  use  of  the  term. 
There  were  Scott  and  Campbell — both  of  them  Scotchmen. 
There  were  Byron  and  Shelley — both  Englishmen,  both  brought 
up  at  the  great  public  schools  and  the  universities,  but  both  car- 
ried away  by  the  influence  of  the  new  revolutionary  ideas. 
Lastly,  there  were  Moore,  an  Irishman,  and  young  Keats,  the 
splendid  promise  of  whose  youth  went  out  in  an  early  death. 
Let  us  learn  a  little  more  about  each,  and  in  the  order  of  the 
dates  of  their  birth. 


3.  William  Wordsworth  (1770-1850)  was  born  at  Cocker- 
mouth,  a  town  in  Cumberland,  which  stands  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Cocker  and  the  Derwent.  His  father,  John  Wordsworth,  was 
law  agent  to  Sir  James  Lowther,  who  afterwards  became  Earl  of 
Lonsdale.  William  was  a  boy  of  a  stiff,  moody,  and  violent  temper ; 
and  as  his  mother  died  when  he  was  a  very  little  boy,  and  his  father 
when  he  was  fourteen,  he  grew  up  wnh  very  little  care  from  his 


416  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

parents  and  guardians.  He  was  sent  to  school  at  Hawkshead,  in  the 
Vale  of  Esthwaite,  in  Lancashire  ;  and,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  pro- 
ceeded to  St  John's  College,  Cambridge.  After  taking  his  degree  of 
B.A.  in  1791,  he  resided  for  a  year  in  France.  He  took  sides  with 
one  of  the  parties  in  the  Eeign  of  Terror,  and  left  the  country  only 
in  time  to  save  his  head.  He  was  designed  by  his  uncles  for  the 
Church  ;  but  a  friend,  Raisley  Calvert,  dying,  left  him  .£900 ;  and  he 
now  resolved  to  live  a  plain  and  frugal  life,  to  join  no  profession,  but 
to  give  himself  wholly  up  to  the  writing  of  poetry.  In  1798,  he 
published,  along  with  his  friend,  S.  T.  Coleridge,  the  Lyrical 
Ballads.  The  only  work  of  Coleridge's  in  this  volume  was  the 
"Ancient  Mariner."  In  1802  he  married  Mary  Hutchinson,  of 
whom  he  speaks  in  the  well-known  lines — 


Her  eyes  as  stars  of  Twilight  fair, 
Like  Twilight's,  too,  her  dusky  hair ; 
But  all  things  else  about  her  drawn 
From  May-time  and  the  cheerful  dawn.' 


He  obtained  the  post  of  Distributor  of  Stamps  for  the  county  of 
Westmoreland;  and,  after  the  death  of  Southey,  he  was  created 
Poet-Laureate  by  the  Queen. — He  settled  with  his  wife  in  the 
Lake  country  ;  and,  in  1813,  took  up  his  abode  at  Rydal  Mount, 
where  he  lived  till  his  death  in  1850.  He  died  on  the  23d  of  April 
— the  death-day  of  Shakespeare. 

4.  His  longest  works  are  the  Excursion  and  the  Prelude — both 
being  parts  of  a  longer  and  greater  work  which  he  intended  to  write 
on  the  growth  of  his  own  mind.  His  best  poems  are  his  shorter 
pieces,  such  as  the  poems  on  Lucy,  The  Cuckoo,  the  Ode  to  Duty, 
the  Intimations  of  Immortality,  and  several  of  his  Sonnets.  He 
says  of  his  own  poetry  that  his  purpose  in  writing  it  was  "  to  console 
the  afflicted;  to  add  sunshine  to  daylight  by  making  the  happy 
happier;  to  teach  the  young  and  the  gracious  of  every  age  to 
see,  to  think,  and  feel,  and  therefore  to  become  more  actively  and 
securely  virtuous."  His  poetical  work  is  the  noble  landmark  of  a 
great  transition — both  in  thought  and  in  style.  He  drew  aside 
poetry  from  questions  and  interests  of  mere  society  and  the  town 
to  the  scenes  of  Nature  and  the  deepest  feelings  of  man  as  man. 
In  style,  he  refused  to  employ  the  old  artificial  vocabulary  which 
Pope  and  his  followers  revelled  in ;  he  used  the  simplest  words  he 
could  find ;  and,  when  he  hits  the  mark  in  his  simplest  form  of  ex- 
pression, his  style  is  as  forcible  as  it  is  true.  He  says  of  his  own 
verse — 


FIRST   HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  417 

44  The  moving  accident  is  not  my  trade, 
To  freeze  the  blood  I  have  no  ready  arts ; 
Tis  my  delight,  alone,  in  summer  shade, 
To  pipe  a  simple  song  for  thinking  hearts." 

If  one  were  asked  what  four  lines  of  his  poetry  best  convey  the  feel- 
ing of  the  whole,  the  reply  must  be  that  these  are  to  be  found  in  his 
"  Song  at  the  Feast  of  Brougham  Castle," — lines  written  about  "  the 
good  Lord  Clifford." 

44  Love  had  he  found  in  huts  where  poor  men  lie, 
His  daily  teachers  had  been  woods  and  rills, — 
The  silence  that  is  in  the  starry  sky, 
The  sleep  that  is  among  the  lonely  hills." 


5.  Walter  Scott  (1771-1832),  poet  and  novelist,  the  son  of 
a  Scotch  attorney  (called  in  Edinburgh  a  W.S.  or  Writer  to  H.M.'s 
Signet),  was  born  there  in  the  year  1771.  He  was  educated  at  the 
High  School,  and  then  at  the  College — now  called  the  University 
— of  Edinburgh.  In  1792  he  was  called  to  the  Scottish  Bar,  or 
became  an  "advocate."  During  his  boyhood,  he  had  had  several 
illnesses,  one  of  which  left  him  lame  for  life.  Through  those  long 
periods  of  sickness  and  of  convalescence,  he  read  Percy's  '  Reliques 
of  Ancient  Poetry/  and  almost  all  the  romances,  old  plays,  and  epic 
poems  that  have  been  published  in  the  English  language.  This 
gave  his  mind  and  imagination  a  set  which  they  never  lost  all 
through  life. 

6.  His  first  publications  were  translations  of  German  poems.  In 
the  year  1805,  however,  an  original  poem,  the  Lay  of  the  Last 
Minstrel,  appeared ;  and  Scott  became  at  one  bound  the  foremost 
poet  of  the  day.  Marmion,  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  and  other 
poems,  followed  with  great  rapidity.  But,  in  1814,  Scott  took  it 
into  his  head  that  his  poetical  vein  was  worked  out ;  the  star  of 
Byron  was  rising  upon  the  literary  horizon ;  and  he  now  gave  him- 
self up  to  novel-writing.  His  first  novel,  Waverley,  appeared 
anonymously  in  1814.  Guy  Mannering,  Old  Mortality,  Rob 
Roy,  and  others,  quickly  followed;  and,  though  the  secret  of  the 
authorship  was  well  kept  both  by  printer  and  publisher,  Walter 
Scott  was  generally  believed  to  be  the  writer  of  these  works,  and  he 
was  frequently  spoken  of  as  "  the  Great  Unknown."  He  was  made 
a  baronet  by  George  IV.  in  1820* 

7.  His  expenses  in  building  Abbotsford,  and  his  desire  to  acquire 
land,  induced  him  to  go  into  partnership  with  Ballantyne,  his  printer, 
and  with  Constable,  his  publisher.     Both  firms  failed  in  the  dark 


418  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

year  of  1826  ;  and  Scott  found  himself  unexpectedly  liable  for  the 
large  sum  of  .£147,000.  Such  a  load  of  debt  would  have  utterly 
crushed  most  men  ;  but  Scott  stood  clear  and  undaunted  in  front  of 
it.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  said  to  his  creditors,  "  time  and  I  against  any 
two.  Let  me  take  this  good  ally  into  my  company,  and  I  believe 
I  shall  be  able  to  pay  you  every  farthing."  He  left  his  beautiful 
country  house  at  Abbotsford ;  he  gave  up  all  his  country  pleasures ; 
he  surrendered  all  his  property  to  his  creditors ;  he  took  a  small  house 
in  Edinburgh ;  and,  in  the  short  space  of  five  years,  he  had  paid  off 
.£130,000.  But  the  task  was  too  terrible ;  the  pace  had  been  too  hard ; 
and  he  was  struck  down  by  paralysis.  But  even  this  disaster  did  not 
daunt  him.  Again  he  went  to  work,  and  again  he  had  a  paralytic 
stroke.  At  last,  however,  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  ;  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  day  placed  a  royal  frigate  at  his  disposal ;  he  went  to 
Italy ;  but  his  health  had  utterly  broken  down,  he  felt  he  could  get 
no  good  from  the  air  of  the  south,  and  he  turned  his  face  towards 
home  to  die.  He  breathed  his  last  breath  at  Abbotsford,  in  sight  of 
his  beloved  Tweed,  with  his  family  around  him,  on  the  21st  of  Sep- 
tember 1832. 

8.  His  poetry  is  the  poetry  of  action.  In  imaginative  power  he 
ranks  below  no  other  poet,  except  Homer  and  Shakespeare.  He 
delighted  in  war,  in  its  movement,  its  pageantry,  and  its  events: 
and,  though  lame,  he  was  quartermaster  of  a  volunteer  corps  of 
cavalry.  On  one  occasion  he  rode  to  muster  one  hundred  miles  in 
twenty-four  hours,  composing  verses  by  the  way.  Much  of  "  Marmion  " 
was  composed  on  horseback.  "  I  had  many  a  grand  gallop,"  he  says, 
"  when  I  was  thinking  of  '  Marmion.' "  His  two  chief  powers  in  verse 
are  his  narrative  and  his  pictorial  power.  His  boyhood  was  passed 
in  the  Borderland  of  Scotland — "  a  district  in  which  every  field  has 
its  battle  and  every  rivulet  its  song  ; "  and  he  was  at  home  in  every 
part  of  the  Highlands  and  the  Lowlands,  the  Islands  and  the  Borders, 
of  his  native  country.  But,  both  in  his  novels  and  his  poems,  he  was 
a  painter  of  action  rather  than  of  character. 

9.  His  prose  works  are  now  much  more  read  than  his  poems  ;  but 
both  are  full  of  life,  power,  literary  skill,  knowledge  of  men  and 
women,  and  strong  sympathy  with  all  past  ages.  He  wrote  so  fast 
that  his  sentences  are  often  loose  and  ungrammatical ;  but  they  are 
never  unidiomatic  or  stiff.  The  rush  of  a  strong  and  large  life  goes 
through  them,  and  carries  the  reader  along,  forgetful  of  all  minor 
blemishes.  His  best  novels  are  Old  Mortality  and  Kenilworth ; 
his  greatest  romance  is  Ivanhoe. 

10.  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  (1772-1834),  a  true  poet,  and 


FIRST  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  4)9 

a  writer  of  noble  prose,  was  born  at  Ottery  St  Mary,  in  Devonshire, 
in  1772.  His  father,  who  was  vicar  of  the  parish,  and  master 
of  the  grammar  -  school,  died  when  the  boy  was  only  nine  years 
of  age.  He  was  educated  at  Christ's  Hospital,  in  London,  where 
his  most  famous  schoolfellow  was  Charles  Lamb  ;  and  from  there 
he  went  to  Jesus  College,  Cambridge.  In  1793  he  had  fallen  into 
debt  at  College ;  and,  in  despair,  left  Cambridge,  and  enlisted 
in  the  15th  Light  Dragoons,  under  the  name  of  Silas  Tomkins 
Comberbatch.  He  was  quickly  discovered,  and  his  discharge  soon 
obtained.  While  on  a  visit  to  his  friend  Robert  Southey,  at 
Bristol,  the  plan  of  emigrating  to  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna,  in 
Pennsylvania,  was  entered  on ;  but,  when  all  the  friends  and  fellow- 
emigrants  were  ready  to  start,  it  was  discovered  that  no  one  of  them 
had  any  money. — Coleridge  finally  became  a  literary  man  and  jour- 
nalist. His  real  power,  however,  lay  in  poetry  ;  but  by  poetry  he 
could  not  make  a  living.  His  first  volume  of  poems  was  published 
at  Bristol,  in  the  year  1796  ;  but  it  was  not  till  1798  that  the  Rime 
of  the  Ancient  Mariner  appeared  in  the  i  Lyrical  Ballads.'  His 
next  greatest  poem,  Chris tabel,  though  written  in  1797,  was  not 
published  till  the  year  1816.  His  other  be3t  poems  are  Love; 
Dejection — an  Ode;  and  some  of  his  shorter  pieces.  His  best 
poetry  was  written  about  the  close  of  the  century  :  "  Coleridge," 
said  Wordsworth,  "was  in  blossom  from  1796  to  1800." — As  a  critic 
and  prose- writer,  he  is  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  his  time.  His  best 
works  in  prose  are  The  Friend  and  the  Aids  to  Reflection.  He 
died  at  Highgate,  near  London,  in  the  year  1834. 

11.  His  style,  both  in  prose  and  in  verse,  marks  the  beginning  of 
the  modern  era.  His  prose  style  is  noble,  elaborate,  eloquent,  and 
full  of  subtle  and  involved  thought ;  his  style  in  verse  is  always 
musical,  and  abounds  in  rhythms  of  the  most  startling  and  novel — 
yet  always  genuine — kind.  Christabel  is  the  poem  that  is  most 
full  of  these  fine  musical  rhythms. 


12.  Robert  Southey  (1774-1843),  poet,  reviewer,  historian, 
but,  above  all,  man  of  letters,  —  the  friend  of  Coleridge  and 
Wordsworth, — was  born  at  Bristol  in  1774.  He  was  educated  at 
Westminster  School  and  at  Balliol  College,  Oxford.  After  his  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Edith  Fricker— a  sister  of  Sara,  the  wife  of  Cole- 
ridge— he  settled  at  Greta  Hall,  near  Keswick,  in  1803  ;  and  resided 
there  until  his  death  in  1843.  In  1813  he  was  created  Poet- 
Laureate  by  George  III. — He  was  the  most  indefatigable  of  writers. 
He  wrote  poetry  before  breakfast;  history  between  breakfast  and 


420  HISTORY   CF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

dinner ;  reviews  between  dinner  and  supper  ;  and,  even  when  taking 
a  constitutional,  he  had  always  a  book  in  his  hand,  and  walked  along 
the  road  reading.  He  began  to  write  and  to  publish  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  ;  he  never  ceased  writing  till  the  year  1837,  when  his  brain 
softened  from  the  effects  of  perpetual  labour. 

13.  Southey  wrote  a  great  deal  of  verse,  but  much  more  prose. 
His  prose  works  amount  to  more  than  one  hundred  volumes  ;  but  his 
poetry,  such  as  it  is,  will  probably  live  longer  than  his  prose.  His 
best-known  poems  are  Joan  of  Arc,  written  when  he  was  nineteen ; 
Thalaba  trie  Destroyer,  a  poem  in  irregular  and  unrhymed  verse ; 
The  Curse  of  Kehama,  in  verse  rhymed,  but  irregular  ;  and 
Roderick,  the  last  of  the  Goths,  written  in  blank  verse.  He 
will,  however,  always  be  best  remembered  by  his  shorter  pieces, 
such  as  The  Holly  Tree,  Stanzas  written  in  My  Library,  and 
others. — His  most  famous  prose  work  is  the  Life  of  Nelson.  His 
prose  style  is  always  firm,  clear,  compact,  and  sensible. 


14.  Thomas  Campbell  (1777-1844),  a  noble  poet  and  brilliant 
reviewer,  was  born  in  Glasgow  in  the  year  1777.  He  was  educated 
at  the  High  School  and  the  University  of  Glasgow.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-two,  he  published  his  Pleasures  of  Hope,  which  at 
once  gave  him  a  place  high  among  the  poets  of  the  day.  In  1803 
he  removed  to  London,  and  followed  literature  as  his  profession ; 
and,  in  1805.  he  received  a  pension  of  .£200  a  -  year  from  the 
Government,  which  enabled  him  to  devote  the  whole  of  his  time  to 
his  favourite  study  of  poetry.  His  best  long  poem  is  the  Gertrude 
of  Wyoming,  a  tale  written  in  the  Spenserian  stanza,  which 
he  handles  with  great  ease  and  power.  But  he  is  best  known, 
and  will  be  longest  remembered,  for  his  short  lyrics  —  which 
glow  with  passionate  and  fiery  eloquence — such  as  The  Battle  of 
the  Baltic,  Ye  Mariners  of  England,  Hohenlinden,  and 
others.  He  was  twice  Lord  Rector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow. 
He  died  at  Boulogne  in  1844,  and  was  buried  in  Poets'  Corner, 
Westminster  Abbey. 


15.  Thomas  Moore  (1779-1852),  poet,  biographer,  and  historian 
— but  most  of  all  poet — was  born  in  Dublin  in  the  year  1779. 
He  began  to  print  verses  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  may  be  said, 
like  Pope,  to  have  "lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  came." 
He  came  to  London  in  1799,  and  was  quickly  received  into 
fashionable  society.      In  1803  he  was  made  Admiralty  Registrar 


FIRST   HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  421 

at  Bermuda  ;  but  he  soon  gave  up  the  post,  leaving  a  deputy 
in  his  place,  who,  some  years  after,  embezzled  the  Government 
funds,  and  brought  financial  ruin  upon  Moore.  The  poet's  friends 
offered  to  help  him  out  of  his  money  difficulties  ;  but  he  most 
honourably  declined  all  such  help,  and,  like  Sir  W.  Scott,  re- 
solved to  clear  off  all  claims  against  him  by  the  aid  of  his  pen  alone. 
For  the  next  twenty  years  of  his  life  he  laboured  incessantly;  and 
volumes  of  poetry,  history,  and  biography  came  steadily  from  his 
pen.  His  best  poems  are  his  Irish.  Melodies,  some  fifteen  or  six- 
teen of  which  are  perfect  and  imperishable  ;  and  it  is  as  a  writer 
of  songs  that  Moore  will  live  in  the  literature  of  this  country. 
He  boasted,  and  with  truth,  that  it  was  he  who  awakened  for  this 
century  the  long-silent  harp  of  his  native  land — 

"  Dear  Harp  of  my  Country !   in  darkness  I  found  thee, 
The  cold  chain  of  silence  had  hung  o'er  thee  long, 
When  proudly,  my  own  Island  Harp,  I  unbound  thee, 
And  gave  all  thy  chords  to  light,  freedom,  and  song." 

His  best  long  poem  is  LaUa  Rookh. — His  prose  works  are  little 
read  nowadays.  The  chief  among  them  are  his  Life  of  Sheridan, 
and  his  Life  of  Lord  Byron. — He  died  at  Sloperton,  in  Wiltshire, 
in  1852,  two  years  after  the  death  of  Wordsworth. 


16.  George  Gordon,  Lord  Byron  (1788-1824),  a  great  English 
poet,  was  born  in  London  in  the  year  1788.  He  was  the  only  child 
of  a  reckless  and  unprincipled  father  and  a  passionate  mother.  He 
was  educated  at  Harrow  School,  and  afterwards  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge.  His  first  volume — Hours  of  Idleness — was  published 
in  1807,  before  he  was  nineteen.  A  critique  of  this  juvenile  work 
which  appeared  in  the  '  Edinburgh  Review '  stung  him  to  passion  ; 
and  he  produced  a  very  vigorous  poetical  reply  in  English  Bards 
and  Scotch  Reviewers.  After  the  publication  of  this  book,  Byron 
travelled  in  Germany,  Spain,  Greece,  and  Turkey  for  two  years  ; 
and  the  first  two  cantos  of  the  poem  entitled  Childe  Harold's 
Pilgrimage  were  the  outcome  of  these  travels.  This  poem  at  once 
placed  him  at  the  head  of  English  poets  ;  "he  woke  one  morning," 
he  said,  "  and  found  himself  famous."  He  was  married  in  the  year 
1815,  but  left  his  wife  in  the  following  year ;  left  his  native 
country  also,  never  to  return.  First  of  all  he  settled  at  Geneva, 
where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  poet  Shelley,  and  where  he 
wrote,  among  other  poems,  the  third  canto  of  Childe  Harold  and 
the  Prisoner  of  Chillon.     In  1817  he  removed  to  Venice,  where  he 


422  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

composed  the  fourth  canto  of  Childe  Harold  and  the  Lament  of 
Tasso ;  his  next  resting-place  was  Ravenna,  where  he  wrote  several 
plays.  Pisa  saw  him  next ;  and  at  this  place  he  spent  a  great  deal 
of  his  time  in  close  intimacy  with  Shelley.  In  1821  the  Greek 
nation  rose  in  revolt  against  the  cruelties  and  oppression  of  the 
Turkish  rule  ;  and  Byron's  sympathies  were  strongly  enlisted  on  the 
side  of  the  Greeks.  He  helped  the  struggling  little  country  with 
contributions  of  money;  and,  in  1823,  sailed  from  Genoa  to  take  a 
personal  share  in  the  war  of  liberation.  He  died,  however,  of  fever, 
at  Missolonghi,  on  the  19th  of  April  1824,  at  the  age  of  thirty-six. 

17.  His  best-known  work  is  Childe  Harold,  which  is  written  in 
the  Spenserian  stanza.  His  plays,  the  best  of  which  are  Manfred 
and  Sardanapalus,  are  written  in  blank  verse. — His  style  is  re- 
markable for  its  strength  and  elasticity,  for  its  immensely  powerful 
sweep,  tireless  energy,  and  brilliant  illustrations. 


18.  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  (1792-1822),— who  has,  like  Spen- 
ser, been  called  "  the  poet's  poet," — was  born  at  Field  Place,  near 
Horsham,  in  Sussex,  in  the  year  1792.  He  was  educated  at  Eton, 
and  then  at  University  College,  Oxford.  A  shy,  diffident,  retiring 
boy,  with  sweet,  gentle  looks  and  manners — like  those  of  a  girl — 
but  with  a  spirit  of  the  greatest  fearlessness  and  the  noblest  in- 
dependence, he  took  little  share  in  the  sports  and  pursuits  of  his 
schoolfellows.  Obliged  to  leave  Oxford,  in  consequence  of  having 
written  a  tract  of  which  the  authorities  did  not  approve,  he  married 
at  the  very  early  age  of  nineteen.  The  young  lady  whom  he 
married  died  in  1816  ;  and  he  soon  after  married  Mary,  daughter 
of  William  Godwin,  the  eminent  author  of  '  Political  Justice.'  In 
1818  he  left  England  for  Italy, — like  his  friend,  Lord  Byron,  for 
ever.  It  was  at  Naples,  Leghorn,  and  Pisa  that  he  chiefly  resided. 
In  1822  he  bought  a  little  boat — "a  perfect  plaything  for  the  sum- 
mer," he  calls  it ;  and  he  used  often  to  make  short  voyages  in  it,  and 
wrote  many  of  his  poems  on  these  occasions.  When  Leigh  Hunt 
was  lying  ill  at  Leghorn,  Shelley  and  his  friend  Williams  resolved 
on  a  coasting  trip  to  that  city.  They  reached  Leghorn  in  safety ; 
but,  on  the  return  journey,  the  boat  sank  in  a  sudden  squall. 
Captain  Eoberts  was  watching  the  vessel  with  his  glass  from  the 
top  of  the  Leghorn  lighthouse,  as  it  crossed  the  Bay  of  Spezzia :  a 
black  cloud  arose;  a  storm  came  down;  the  vessels  sailing  with 
Shelley's  boat  were  wrapped  in  darkness  ;  the  cloud  passed  ;  the 
sun  shone  out,  and  all  was  clear  again  ;  the  larger  vessels  rode  on ; 
but  Shelley's  boat  had  disappeared.     The  poet's  body  was  cast  on 


FIRST  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  423 

shore,  but  the  quarantine  laws  of  Italy  required  that  everything 
thrown  up  on  the  coast  should  be  burned  :  no  representations  could 
alter  the  law  ;  and  Shelley's  ashes  were  placed  in  a  box  and  buried 
in  the  Protestant  cemetery  at  Rome. 

19.  Shelley's  best  long  poem  is  the  Adonais,  an  elegy  on  the  death 
of  John  Keats.  It  is  written  in  the  Spenserian  stanza.  But  this 
true  poet  will  be  best  remembered  by  his  short  lyrical  poems,  such 
as  The  Cloud,  Ode  to  a  Skylark,  Ode  to  the  West  Wind, 
Stanzas  written  in  Dejection,  and  others.  —  Shelley  has  been 
called  "  the  poet's  poet,"  because  his  style  is  so  thoroughly  transfused 
by  pure  imagination.  He  has  also  been  called  "  the  master-singer 
of  our  modern  race  and  age  ;  for  his  thoughts,  his  words,  and  his 
deeds  all  sang  together."  He  is  probably  the  greatest  lyric  poet  of 
this  century. 


20.  John  Keats  (1795-1821),  one  of  our  truest  poets,  was 
born  in  Moorfields,  London,  in  the  year  1795.  He  was  educated 
at  a  private  school  at  Enfield.  His  desire  for  the  pleasures  of 
the  intellect  and  the  imagination  showed  itself  very  early  at  school ; 
and  he  spent  many  a  half-holiday  in  writing  translations  from 
the  Roman  and  the  French  poets.  On  leaving  school,  he  was 
apprenticed  to  a  surgeon  at  Edmonton — the  scene  of  one  of  John 
Gilpin's  adventures  ;  but,  in  1817,  he  gave  up  the  practice  of  surgery, 
devoted  himself  entirely  to  poetry,  and  brought  out  his  first  volume. 
In  1818  appeared  his  Endymion.  The  *  Quarterly  Review '  handled 
it  without  mercy.  Keats's  health  gave  way ;  the  seeds  of  consump- 
tion were  in  his  frame  ;  and  he  was  ordered  to  Italy  in  1820,  as  the 
last  chance  of  saving  his  life.  But  it  was  too  late.  The  air  of  Italy 
could  not  Testore  him.  He  settled  at  Rome  with  his  friend  Severn ; 
but,  in  spite  of  all  the  care,  thought,  devotion,  and  watching  of  his 
friend,  he  died  in  1821,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  He  was  buried 
in  the  Protestant  cemetery  at  Rome  ;  and  the  inscription  on  his 
tomb,  composed  by  himself,  is,  "  Here  lies  one  whose  name  was  writ 
in  water." 

21.  His  greatest  poem  is  Hyperion,  written,  in  blank  verse,  on 
the  overthrow  of  the  "  early  gods "  of  Greece.  But  he  will  most 
probably  be  best  remembered  by  his  marvellous  odes,  such  as  the 
Ode  to  a  Nightingale,  Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn,  To  Autumn, 
and  others.  His  style  is  clear,  sensuous,  and  beautiful ;  and  he  has 
added  to  our  literature  lines  that  will  always  live.  Such  are  the 
following : — 

"  A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  for  ever." 


424  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  Silent,  upon  a  peak  in  Darien." 

"  Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the  skies 
When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken." 

"  Perhaps  the  self-same  song  that  found  a  path 
Through  the  sad  heart  of  Ruth,  when,  sick  for  home, 
She  stood  in  tears  amid  the  alien  corn." 


22.  Prose-Writers. — We  have  now  to  consider  the  greatest 
prose-writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  First 
comes  "Walter  Scott,  one  of  the  greatest  novelists  that  ever 
lived,  and  who  won  the  name  of  "  The  Wizard  of  the  North  " 
from  the  marvellous  power  he  possessed  of  enchaining  the 
attention  and  fascinating  the  minds  of  his  readers.  Two  other 
great  writers  of  prose  were  Charles  Lamb  and  'Walter  Savage 
Landor,  each  in  styles  essentially  different.  Jane  Austen, 
a  young  English  lady,  has  become  a  classic  in  prose,  because  her 
work  is  true  and  perfect  within  its  own  sphere.  De  Quincey 
is  perhaps  the  writer  of  the  most  ornate  and  elaborate  English 
prose  of  this  period.  Thomas  Carlyle,  a  great  Scotsman,  with 
a  style  of  overwhelming  power,  but  of  occasional  grotesqueness, 
like  a  great  prophet  and  teacher  of  the  nation,  compelled  states- 
men and  philanthropists  to  think,  while  he  also  gained  for  him- 
self a  high  place  in  the  rank  of  historians.  Macaulay,  also  of 
Scottish  descent,  was  one  of  the  greatest  essayists  and  ablest 
writers  on  history  that  Great  Britain  has  produced.  A  short 
survey  of  each  of  these  great  men  may  be  useful.  Scott  has 
been  already  treated  of. 


23.  Charles  Lamb  (1775  - 1834),  a  perfect  English  essayist, 
was  born  in  the  Inner  Temple,  in  London,  in  the  year  1775. 
His  father  was  clerk  to  a  barrister  of  that  Inn  of  Court.  Charles 
was  educated  at  Christ's  Hospital,  where  his  most  famous  school- 
fellow was  S.  T.  Coleridge.  Brought  up  in  the  very  heart  of 
London,  he  had  always  a  strong  feeling  for  the  greatness  of  the 
metropolis  of  the  world.  "  I  often  shed  tears,"  he  said,  "  in  the 
motley  Strand,  for  fulness  of  joy  at  so  much  life."  He  was,  indeed, 
a  thorough  Cockney  and  lover  of  London,  as  were  also  Chaucer, 


FIRST  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  425 

Spenser,  Milton,  and  Lamb's  friend  Leigh  Hunt.  Entering  the  India 
House  as  a  clerk  in  the  year  1792,  he  remained  there  thirty-three 
years  ;  and  it  was  one  of  his  odd  sayings  that,  if  any  one  wanted  to 
see  his  "  works,"  he  would  find  them  on  the  shelves  of  the  India 
House. — He  is  greatest  as  a  writer  of  prose ;  and  his  prose  is,  in 
its  way,  unequalled  for  sweetness,  grace,  humour,  and  quaint  terms, 
among  the  writings  of  this  century.  His  best  prose  work  is  the 
Essays  of  Elia,  which  show  on  every  page  the  most  whimsical  and 
humorous  subtleties,  a  quick  play  of  intellect,  and  a  deep  sympathy 
with  the  sorrows  and  the  joys  of  men.  Very  little  verse  came  from 
his  pen.  "  Charles  Lamb's  nosegay  of  verse,"  says  Professor  Dowden, 
"may  be  held  by  the  small  hand  of  a  maiden,  and  there  is  not  in  it 
one  flaunting  flower."  Perhaps  the  best  of  his  poems  are  the  short 
pieces  entitled  Hester  and  The  Old  Familiar  Faces. — He  retired 
from  the  India  House,  on  a  pension,  in  1825,  and  died  at  Edmonton, 
near  London,  in  1834.  His  character  was  as  sweet  and  refined  as  his 
style  ;  Wordsworth  spoke  of  him  as  "  Lamb  the  frolic  and  the 
gentle ; "  and  these  and  other  fine  qualities  endeared  him  to  a  large 
circle  of  friends. 


24.  Walter  Savage  Landor  (1775-1864),  the  greatest  prose- 
writer  in  his  own  style  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  born  at 
Ipsley  Court,  in  Warwickshire,  on  the  30th  of  January  1775 — the 
anniversary  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  He  was  educated  at 
Rugby  School  and  at  Oxford  ;  but  his  fierce  and  insubordinate 
temper — which  remained  with  him,  and  injured  him  all  his  life — 
procured  his  expulsion  from  both  of  these  places.  As  heir  to  a 
large  estate,  he  resolved  to  give  himself  up  entirely  to  literature  ; 
and  he  accordingly  declined  to  adopt  any  profession.  Living  an 
almost  purely  intellectual  life,  he  wrote  a  great  deal  of  prose 
and  some  poetry ;  and  his  first  volume  of  poems  appeared  before  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  His  life,  which  began  in  the  reign 
of  George  III.,  stretched  through  the  reigns  of  George  IV.  and 
William  IV.,  into  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Queen  Victoria;  and, 
in  the  course  of  this  long  life,  he  had  manifold  experiences,  many 
loves  and  hates,  friendships  and  acquaintanceships,  with  persons  of 
every  sort  and  rank.  He  joined  the  Spanish  army  to  fight  Napo- 
leon, and  presented  the  Spanish  Government  with  large  sums  of 
money.  He  spent  about  thirty  years  of  his  life  in  Florence,  where 
he  wrote  many  of  his  works.  He  died  at  Florence  in  the  year  1864. 
His  greatest  prose  work  is  the  Imaginary  Conversations ;  his  best 
poem  is  Count  Julian ;  and  the  character  of  Count  Julian  has  been 


426  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ranked  by  De  Quincey  with  the  Satan  of  Milton.  Some  of  his 
smaller  poetic  pieces  are  perfect ;  and  there  is  one,  Rose  Aylmer, 
written  about  a  dear  young  friend,  that  Lamb  was  never  tired  of 
repeating  : — 

"  Ah  !  what  avails  the  sceptred  race  ! 
Ah  !   what  the  form  divine  ! 
What  every  virtue,  every  grace  ! 
Rose  Aylmer,  all  were  thine ! 

"  Rose  Aylmer,  whom  these  wakeful  eyes 
Shall  weep,  hut  never  Bee  ! 
A  night  of  memories  and  sighs 
I  consecrate  to  thee." 


25.  Jane  Austen  (1775-1817),  the  most  delicate  and  faithful 
painter  of  English  social  life,  was  born  at  Steventon,  in  Hamp- 
shire, in  1775 — in  the  same  year  as  Landor  and  Lamb.  She  wrote 
a  small  number  of  novels,  most  of  which  are  almost  perfect  in 
their  minute  and  true  painting  of  character.  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
Macaulay,  and  other  great  writers,  are  among  her  fervent  admirers. 
Scott  says  of  her  writing  :  "  The  big  bow-wow  strain  I  can  do  myself, 
like  any  now  going ;  but  the  exquisite  touch  which  renders  ordinary 
commonplace  things  and  characters  interesting,  from  the  truth  of  the 
description  and  the  sentiment,  is  denied  to  me."  She  works  out  her 
characters  by  making  them  reveal  themselves  in  their  talk,  and  by 
an  infinite  series  of  minute  touches.  Her  two  best  novels  are  Emma 
and  Pride  and  Prejudice.  The  interest  of  them  depends  on  the 
truth  of  the  painting  ;  and  many  thoughtful  persons  read  through 
the  whole  of  her  novels  every  year. 


26.  Thomas  De  Quincey  (1785-1859),  one  of  our  most  brilliant 
essayists,  was  born  at  Greenheys,  Manchester,  in  the  year  1785. 
He  was  educated  at  the  Manchester  grammar  -  school  and  at 
Worcester  College,  Oxford.  While  at  Oxford  he  took  little  share 
in  the  regular  studies  of  his  college,  but  read  enormous  numbers 
of  Greek,  Latin,  and  English  books,  as  his  taste  or  whim  sug- 
gested. He  knew  no  one  ;  he  hardly  knew  his  own  tutor.  "  For 
the  first  two  years  of  my  residence  in  Oxford,"  he  says,  "I  com- 
pute that  I  did  not  utter  one  hundred  words."  After  leaving 
Oxford,  he  lived  for  about  twenty  years  in  the  Lake  country ;  and 
there  he  became  acquainted  with  Wordsworth,  Hartley  Coleridge 
(the  son  of  S.  T.  Coleridge),  and  John  Wilson  (afterwards  known  as 


FIRST  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  427 

Professor  Wilson,  and  also  as  the  "  Christopher  North  "  of  '  Black- 
wood's Magazine ').  Suffering  from  repeated  attacks  of  neuralgia,  he 
gradually  formed  the  habit  of  taking  laudanum  ;  and  by  the  time  he 
had  reached  the  age  of  thirty,  he  drank  about  8000  drops  a-day. 
This  unfortunate  habit  injured  his  powers  of  work  and  weakened  his 
will.  In  spite  of  it,  however,  he  wrote  many  hundreds  of  essays  and 
articles  in  reviews  and  magazines.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  he 
lived  either  near  or  in  Edinburgh,  and  was  always  employed  in  dream- 
ing (the  opium  increased  his  power  both  of  dreaming  and  of  mus- 
ing), or  in  studying  or  writing.  He  died  in  Edinburgh  in  the  year 
1859. — Many  of  his  essays  were  written  under  the  signature  of  "The 
English  Opium-Eater."  Probably  his  best  works  are  The  Confes- 
sions of  an  Opium-Eater  and  The  Vision  of  Sudden  Death. 
The  chief  characteristics  of  his  style  are  majestic  rhythm  and  elabo- 
rate eloquence.  Some  of  his  sentences  are  almost  as  long  and  as  sus- 
tained as  those  of  Jeremy  Taylor  ;  while,  in  many  passages  of 
reasoning  that  glows  and  brightens  with  strong  passion  and  emotion, 
he  is  not  inferior  to  Burke.  He  possessed  an  enormous  vocabulary 
— in  wealth  of  words  and  phrases  he  surpasses  both  Macaulay  and 
Carlyle  ;  and  he  makes  a  very  large — perhaps  even  an  excessive— use 
of  Latin  words.  He  is  also  very  fond  of  using  metaphors,  personifi- 
cations, and  other  figures  of  speech.  It  may  be  said  without  exaggera- 
tion that,  next  to  Carlyle's,  De  Quincey's  style  is  the  most  stimulating 
and  inspiriting  that  a  youfig  reader  can  find  among  modern  writers. 


27.  Thomas  Carlyle  (1795-1881),  a  great  thinker,  essayist, 
and  historian,  was  born  at  Ecclefechan,  in  Dumfriesshire,  in  the 
year  1795.  He  was  educated  at  the  burgh  school  of  Annan, 
and  afterwards  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Classics  and  the 
higher  mathematics  were  his  favourite  studies  ;  and  he  was  more 
especially  fond  of  astronomy.  He  was  a  teacher  for  some  years  after 
leaving  the  University.  For  a  few  years  after  this  he  was  engaged 
in  minor  literary  work ;  and  translating  from  the  German  occupied  a 
good  deal  of  his  time.  In  1826  he  married  Jane  Welsh,  a  woman 
of  abilities  only  inferior  to  his  own.  His  first  original  work  was 
Sartor  Resartus  ("The  Tailor  Repatched"),  which  appeared  in 
1834,  and  excited  a  great  deal  of  attention — a  book  which  has  proved 
to  many  the  electric  spark  which  first  woke  into  life  their  powers  of 
thought  and  reflection.  From  1837  to  1840  he  gave  courses  of  lec- 
tures in  London  ;  and  these  lectures  were  listened  to  by  the  best  and 
most  thoughtful  of  the  London  people.  The  most  striking  series 
afterwards  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  book,  under  the  title  of  Heroes 


428  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

and  Hero-Worship.  Perhaps  his  most  remarkable  book — a  book 
that  is  unique  in  all  English  literature — is  The  French  Revolu- 
tion, which  appeared  in  1837.  In  the  year  1845,  his  Cromwell's 
Letters  and  Speeches  were  published,  and  drew  after  them  a  large 
number  of  eager  readers.  In  1865  he  completed  the  hardest  piece  of 
work  he  had  ever  undertaken,  his  History  of  Frederick  IL,  com- 
monly called  the  Great.  This  work  is  so  highly  regarded  in 
Germany  as  a  truthful  and  painstaking  history  that  officers  in  the 
Prussian  army  are  obliged  to  study  it,  as  containing  the  best  account 
of  the  great  battles  of  the  Continent,  the  fields  on  which  they  were 
fought,  and  the  strategy  that  went  to  win  them.  One  of  the  crown- 
ing external  honours  of  Carlyle's  life  was  his  appointment  as  Lord 
Rector  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  in  1866  ;  but  at  the  very  time 
that  he  was  delivering  his  famous  and  remarkable  Installation  Ad- 
dress, his  wife  lay  dying  in  London.  This  stroke  brought  terrible 
sorrow  on  the  old  man  ;  he  never  ceased  to  mourn  for  his  loss,  and  to 
recall  the  virtues  and  the  beauties  of  character  in  his  dead  wife  ; 
"  the  light  of  his  life,"  he  said,  "  was  quite  gone  out ; "  and  he  wrote 
very  little  after  her  death.  He  himself  died  in  London  on  the  5th 
of  February  1881. 

28.  Carlyle's  Style. — Carlyle  was  an  author  by  profession,  a 
teacher  of  and  prophet  to  his  countrymen  by  his  mission,  and  a 
student  of  history  by  the  deep  interest  he  took  in  the  life  of  man. 
He  was  always  more  or  less  severe  in  hiwjudgments — he  has  been 
called  "  The  Censor  of  the  Age," — because  of  the  high  ideal  which 
he  set  up  for  his  own  conduct  and  the  conduct  of  others. — He  shows 
in  his  historic  writings  a  splendour  of  imagery  and  a  power  of  dra- 
matic grouping  second  only  to  Shakespeare's.  In  command  of  words 
he  is  second  to  no  modern  English  writer.  His  style  has  been  highly 
praised  and  also  energetically  blamed.  It  is  rugged,  gnarled,  dis- 
jointed, full  of  irregular  force—  shot  across  by  sudden  lurid  lights  of 
imagination  —  full  of  the  most  striking  and  indeed  astonishing 
epithets,  and  inspired  by  a  certain  grim  Titanic  force.  His  sen- 
tences are  often  clumsily  built.  He  himself  said  of  them  :  "  Perhaps 
not  more  than  nine-tenths  stand  straight  on  their  legs  ;  the  remainder 
are  in  quite  angular  attitudes  ;  a  few  even  sprawl  out  helplessly  on 
all  sides,  quite  broken-backed  and  dismembered."  There  is  no 
modern  writer  who  possesses  so  large  a  profusion  of  figurative  lan- 
guage. His  works  are  also  full  of  the  pithiest  and  most  memorable 
sayings,  such  as  the  following  : — 

"  Genius  is  an  immense  capacity  for  taking  pains." 

"  Do  the  duty  which  lies  nearest  thee  !  Thy  second  duty  will  already  have 
become  clearer." 


FIRST  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  429 

"  History  is  a  mighty  drama,  enacted  upon  the  theatre  of  time,  with  suns 
for  lamps,  and  eternity  for  a  background. " 

"All  true  work  is  sacred.  In  all  true  work,  were  it  but  true  hand-labour, 
there  is  something  of  divineness.  Labour,  wide  as  the  earth,  has  its  summit  in 
heaven." 

'Remember  now  and  always  that  Life  is  no  idle  dream,  but  a  solemn 
reality  based  upon  Eternity,  and  encompassed  by  Eternity.  Find  out  your 
task:  stand  to  it:  the  night  cornet^  when  no  man  can  work." 


29.  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  (1800-1859),  the  most  popu- 
lar of  modern  historians, — an  essayist,  poet,  statesman,  and  orator, 
— was  born  at  Kothley  Temple,  in  Leicestershire,  in  the  year  1800. 
His  father  was  one  of  the  greatest  advocates  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery ;  and  received,  after  his  death,  the  honour  of  a  monument  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  Young  Macaulay  was  educated  privately,  and 
then  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  He  studied  classics  with  great 
diligence  and  success,  but  detested  mathematics — a  dislike  the  conse- 
quences of  which  he  afterwards  deeply  regretted.  In  1824  he  was 
elected  Fellow  of  his  college.  His  first  literary  work  was  done  for 
Knight's  'Quarterly  Magazine';  but  the  earliest  piece  of  writing 
that  brought  him  into  notice  was  his  famous  essay  on  Milton, 
written  for  the  *  Edinburgh  Review  '  in  1825.  Several  years  of  his 
life  were  spent  in  India,  as  Member  of  the  Supreme  Council ;  and,  on 
his  return,  he  entered  Parliament,  where  he  sat  as  M.P.  for  Edin- 
burgh. Several  offices  were  filled  by  him,  among  others  that  of 
Paymaster-General  of  the  Forces,  with  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  of  Lord 
John  Russell.  In  1842  appeared  his  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome, 
poems  which  have  found  a  very  large  number  of  readers.  His 
greatest  work  is  his  History  of  England  from  the  Accession 
of  James  II.  To  enable  himself  to  write  this  history  he  read 
hundreds  of  books,  Acts  of  Parliament,  thousands  of  pamphlets, 
tracts,  broadsheets,  ballads,  and  other  flying  fragments  of  literature ; 
and  he  never  seems  to  have  forgotten  anything  he  ever  read.  In 
1849  he  was  elected  Lord  Rector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow ;  and 
in  1857  was  raised  to  the  peerage  with  the  title  of  Baron  Macaulay 
of  Rothley — the  first  literary  man  who  was  ever  called  to  the  House 
of  Lords.     He  died  at  Holly  Lodge,  Kensington,  in  the  year  1859. 

30.  Macaulay's  Style. — One  of  the  most  remarkable  qualities  in 
his  style  is  the  copiousness  of  expression,  and  the  remarkable  power 
of  putting  the  same  statement  in  a  large  number  of  different  ways. 
This  enormous  command  of  expression  corresponded  with  the  extra- 
ordinary power  of  his  memory.     At  the  age  of  eight  he  could  repeat 

2  Q 


430  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

the  whole  of  Scott's  poem  of  "  Marmion."  He  was  fond,  at  this  early- 
age,  of  big  words  and  learned  English  ;  and  once,  when  he  was  asked 
by  a  lady  if  his  toothache  was  better,  he  replied,  "  Madam,  the  agony 
is  abated ! "  He  knew  the  whole  of  Homer  and  of  Milton  by  heart ; 
and  it  was  said  with  perfect  truth  that,  if  Milton's  poetical  works 
could  have  been  lost,  Macaulay  would  have  restored  every  line  with 
complete  exactness.  Sydney  Smith  said  of  him  :  "  There  are  no 
limits  to  his  knowledge,  on  small  subjects  as  on  great ;  he  is  like  a 
book  in  breeches."  His  style  has  been  called  "  abrupt,  pointed,  and 
oratorical."  He  is  fond  of  the  arts  of  surprise — of  antithesis — and  of 
epigram.     Sentences  like  these  are  of  frequent  occurrence  : — 

"Cranmer  could  vindicate  himself  from  the  charge  of  being  a  heretic  only 
by  arguments  which  made  him  out  to  be  a  murderer. " 

"  The  Puritan  hated  bear-baiting,  not  because  it  gave  pain  to  the  bear,  but 
because  it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators. " 

Besides  these  elements  of  epigram  and  antithesis,  there  is  a  vast 
wealth  of  illustration,  brought  from  the  stores  of  a  memory  which 
never  seemed  to  forget  anything.  He  studied  every  sentence  with 
the  greatest  care  and  minuteness,  and  would  often  rewrite  para- 
graphs and  even  whole  chapters,  until  he  was  satisfied  with  the 
variety  and  clearness  of  the  expression.  "  He  could  not  rest,"  it 
was  said,  "  until  the  punctuation  was  correct  to  a  comma ,  until 
every  paragraph  concluded  with  a  telling  sentence,  and  every  sen- 
tence flowed  like  clear  running  water."  But,  above  all  things,  he 
strove  to  make  his  style  perfectly  lucid  and  immediately  intelligible. 
He  is  fond  of  countless  details  ;  but  he  so  masters  and  marshals  these 
details  that  each  only  serves  to  throw  more  light  upon  the  main 
statement.  His  prose  may  be  described  as  pictorial  prose.  The 
character  of  his  mind  was,  like  Burke's,  combative  and  oratorical ; 
and  he  writes  with  the  greatest  vigour  and  animation  when  he  is 
attacking  a  policy  or  an  opinion. 


431 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    SECOND    HALF    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

1.  Science. — The  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  is 
distinguished  by  the  enormous  advance  made  in  science,  and  in 
the  application  of  science  to  the  industries  and  occupations  of 
the  people.  Chemistry  and  electrical  science  more  especially 
made  enormous  strides.  Within*  the  century's  last  twenty  years, 
chemistry  remade  itself  into  a  new  science ;  and  electricity  took 
a  very  large  part  of  the  labour  of  mankind  upon  itself.  It 
carries  our  messages  round  the  world — under  the  deepest  seas, 
over  the  highest  mountains,  to  every  continent,  and  to  every 
great  city ;  it  lights  up  our  streets  and  public  halls ;  it  drives 
our  engines  and  propels  our  trains.  But  the  powers  of  imagina- 
tion, the  great  literary  powers  of  poetry,  and  of  eloquent  prose, 
— especially  in  the  domain  of  fiction, — did  not  decrease  because 
science  increased.  They  have  rather  shown  stronger  develop- 
ments. We  must,  at  the  same  time,  remember  that  a  great  deal 
of  the  literary  work  published  by  the  most  important  writers  who 
were  still  living  in  the  latter  half  of  this  century,  was  written  in 
the  former  half.  Thus,  Longfellow  was  a  man  of  forty-three, 
and  Tennyson  was  forty-one,  in  the  year  1850 ;  and  both  had  by 
that  time  done  a  great  deal  of  their  best  work.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  prose-writers,  Thackeray,  Dickens,  and  Ruskin. 

2.  Poets  and  Prose-Writers.—  The  six  greatest  poets  of  the 
latter  half  of  this  century  are  Longfellow,  a  distinguished 
American   poet,   Tennyson,   Mrs.  Browning,  Robert  Brown- 


432  HISTORY    OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

ing,  William  Morris,  and  Matthew  Arnold.  Of  these,  Mrs. 
Browning  was  first  to  go  in  1861,  and  all  are  now  dead,  William 
Morris,  the  last,  surviving  till  1896. — The  four  greatest  writers 
of  prose  are  Thackeray,  Dickens,  George  Eliot,  and  Ruskin. 
Of  these,  too,  not  one  is  left  alive. 


3.  Henry  "Wadsworth  Longfellow  (1807  - 1882),  the  most 
popular  of  American  poets,  and  as  popular  in  Great  Britain  as  he 
is  in  the  United  States,  was  born  at  Portland,  Maine,  in  the  year 
1807.  He  was  educated  at  Bowdoin  College,  and  took  his  degree 
there  in  the  year  1825.  His  profession  was  to  have  been  the  law, 
but,  from  the  first,  the  whole  bent  of  his  talents  and  character  was 
literary.  At  the  extraordinary  age  of  eighteen  the  professorship  of 
modern  languages  in  his  own  college  was  offered  to  him  ;  it  was 
eagerly  accepted,  and  in  order  to  qualify  himself  for  his  duties,  he 
spent  the  next  four  years  in  Germany,  France,  Spain,  and  Italy. 
His  first  important  prose  work  was  Outre-Mer,  or  a  Pilgrimage 
beyond  the  Sea.  In  1837  he  was  offered  *he  Chair  of  Modern 
Languages  and  Literature  in  Harvard  University,  and  he  again  paid 
a  visit  to  Europe — this  time  giving  his  thoughts  and  study  chiefly  to 
Germany,  Denmark,  and  Scandinavia.  In  1839  he  published  the 
prose  romance  called  Hyperion.  But  it  was  not  as  a  prose-writer 
that  Longfellow  gained  the  secure  place  he  has  in  the  hearts  of  the 
English-speaking  peoples  ;  it  was  as  a  poet.  His  first  volume  of 
poems  was  called  Voices  of  the  Night,  and  appeared  in  1841  ; 
Evangeline  was  published  in  1848;  and  Hiawatha,  on  which  his 
poetical  reputation  is  perhaps  most  firmly  based,  in  1855.  Many 
other  volumes  of  poetry — both  original  and  translations — have  also 
come  from  his  pen  ;  but  these  are  the  best.  The  University  of  Ox- 
ford created  him  Doctor  of  Civil  Law  in  1869.  He  died  at  Harvard 
in  the  year  1882.  A  man  of  singularly  mild  and  gentle  character,  of 
sweet  and  charming  manners,  his  own  lines  may  be  applied  to  him 
with  perfect  appropriateness — 

"  His  gracious  presence  upon  earth 
"Was  as  a  fire  upon  a  hearth; 
As  pleasant  songs,  at  morning  sung, 
The  words  that  dropped  from  his  sweet  tongue 
Strengthened  our  hearts,  or — heard  at  night- 
Made  all  our  slumbers  soft  and  light." 

4.  Longfellow's  Style. — In  one  of  his  prose  works,  Longfellow 
himself  says,  "  In  character,  in  manners,  in  style,  in  all  things,  the 


Y 


SECOND   HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  433 

supreme  excellence  is  simplicity."  This  simplicity  he  steadily  aimed 
at,  and  in  almost  all  his  writings  reached  ;  and  the  result  is  the 
sweet  lucidity  which  is  manifest  in  his  best  poems.  His  verse  has 
been  characterised  as  "simple,  musical,  sincere,  sympathetic,  clear 
as  crystal,  and  pure  as  snow."  He  has  written  in  a  great  variety 
of  measures  —  in  more,  perhaps,  than  have  been  employed  by 
Tennyson  himself.  His  "Evangeline"  is  written  in  a  kind  of 
dactylic  hexameter,  which  does  not  always  scan,  but  which  is  almost 
always  musical  and  impressive — 

"  Fair  was  she  and  young,  when  in  hope  began  the  long  journey ; 
Faded  was  she  and  old,  when  in  disappointment  it  ended." 

The  "  Hiawatha,"  again,  is  written  in  a  trochaic  measure — each  verse 
containing  four  trochees — 

"  '  Farewell ! '  said  he,  "  Minnehaha, 
Farewell,  0  my  laughing  water ! 
All  my  heart  is  buried  with  you, 
All'  my  |  thou'ghts  go  |  on'ward  |  wi'th  you  ! '  " 

He  is  always  careful  and  painstaking  with  his  rhythm  and  with  the 
cadence  of  his  verse.  It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  Longfellow 
has  taught  more  people  to  love  poetry  than  any  other  English  writer, 
however  great. 


5.  Alfred  Tennyson  (1809-1892),  who  continued  writing 
beautiful  poetry  lor  close  on  seventy  year**,  was  born  at  Somersby, 
in  Lincolnshire  in  the  year  1809.  He  was  the  youngest  of  three 
brothers,  all  of  whom  were  poets.  He  was  educated  at  Cambridge, 
and  some  of  his  poems  have  shown,  in  a  striking  light,  the  forgotten 
beauty  of  the  fens  and  flats  of  Cambridge  and  Lincolnshire.  In  1829 
he  obtained  the  Chancellor's  medal  for  a  poem  on  "  Timbuctoo."  In 
1830  he  published  his  first  volume,  with  the  title  of  Poems  chiefly 
Lyrical — a  volume  which  contained,  among  other  beautiful  verses, 
the  "  Recollections  of  the  Arabian  Nights  "  and  "  The  Dying  Swan." 
In  1832  he  issued  another  volume,  called  simply  Poems ;  and  this 
contained  the  exquisite  poems  entitled  "  The  Miller's  Daughter"  and 
"  The  Lotos-Eaters."  The  Princess,  a  poem  as  remarkable  for  its 
striking  thoughts  as  for  its  perfection  of  language,  appeared  in  1847. 
The  In  Memoriam,  a  long  series  of  short  poems  in  memory  of  his 
dear  friend,  Arthur  Henry  Hallam,  the  son  of  Hallam  the  historian, 
was  published  in  the  year  1850.  When  Wordsworth  died  in  1850, 
Tennyson  was  appointed  to  the  office  of  Poet- Laureate.  This  office, 
from  the  time  when  Dryden  was  forced  to  resign  it  in  1689,  to  the 


434  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

time  when  Southey  accepted  it  in  1813,  had  always  been  held  by  third 
or  fourth  rate  writers  ;  now  once  more  it  was  held  by  the  man  who 
had  done  the  largest  amount  of  the  best  poetical  work.  The  Idylls 
of  the  King  appeared  in  1859.  This  series  of  poems — perhaps  his 
greatest — contains  the  stories  of  "Arthur  and  the  Knights  of  the 
Round  Table."  Many  other  volumes  of  poems  were  presented  by  him 
to  the  world.  In  his  old  age  he  turned  to  the  writing  of  ballads 
and  dramas.  His  ballad  of  The  Revenge  is  one  of  the  noblest 
and  most  vigorous  poems  that  England  has  ever  seen.  The  dramas 
of  Harold,  Queen  Mary,  and  Becket,  are  perhaps  his  best ;  and 
the  last  was  written  when  the  poet  had  reached  the  age  of  seventy- 
four.  In  the  year  1882  he  was  created  Baron  Tennyson,  and  called 
to  the  House  of  Peers.     He  died  at  Aid  worth,  Haslemere,  in  1892. 

6.  Tennyson's  Style. — Tennyson  was  to  two  generations  of 
Englishmen  the  national  poet  and  teacher  of  poetry.  He  tried 
many  new  measures ;  he  ventured  on  many  new  rhythms  ;  and 
he  succeeded  in  them  all.  He  is  at  home  equally  in  the  slowest, 
most  tranquil,  and  most  meditative  of  rhythms,  and  in  the  rapidest 
and  most  impulsive.  Let  us  look  at  the  following  lines  as  an 
example  of  the  first.  The  poem  is  written  on  a  woman  who  is 
dying  of  a  lingering  disease — 

"  Fair  is  her  cottage  in  its  place, 

Where  yon  broad  water  sweetly  slowly  glides : 
It  sees  itself  from  thatch  to  base 
Dream  in  the  sliding  tides. 

"  And  fairer  she :   but,  ah  !  how  soon  to  die  ! 
Her  quiet  dream  of  life  this  hour  may  cease : 
Her  peaceidl  being  slowly  passes  by 
To  some  more  perfect  peace." 

The  very  next  poem,  "  The  Sailor  Boy,"  in  the  same  volume,  is — 
though  written  in  exactly  the  same  measure — driven  on  with  the 
most  rapid  march  and  vigorous  rhythm — 

"  He  rose  at  dawn  and,  fired  with  hope, 
Shot  o'er  the  seething  harbour-bar, 
And  reached  the  ship  and  caught  the  rope 
And  whistled  to  the  morning-star." 

And  this  is  a  striking  and  prominent  characteristic  of  all  Tennyson's 
poetry.  Everywhere  the  sound  is  made  to  be  "  an  echo  to  the  sense  " ; 
the  style  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  the  matter.  In  the  "  Lotos- 
Eaters,"  we  have  the  sense  of  complete  indolence  and  deep  repose 
in— 


SECOND  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  435 

"  A  land  of  streams !    Some,  like  a  downward  smoke, 
Slow-dropping  veils  of  thinnest  lawn,  did  go." 

In  the  "  Boadicea,"  we  have  the  rush  and  the  shock  of  battle,  the 
closing  of  legions,  the  hurtle  of  arms  and  the  clash  of  armed  men — 

"  Phantom  sound  of  blows  descending,  moan  of  an  enemy  massacred, 
Phantom  wail  of  women  and  children,  multitudinous  agonies." 

Many  of  Tennyson's  sweetest  and  most  pathetic  lines  have  gone  right 
into  the  heart  of  the  nation,  such 


M  But  oh  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still ! " 

All  his  language  is  highly  polished,  ornate,  rich — sometimes  Spen- 
serian in  luxuriant  imagery  and  sweet  music,  sometimes  even  Homeric 
in  massiveness  and  severe  simplicity.  Thus,  in  the  "  Morte  d' Arthur," 
he  speaks  of  the  knight  walking  to  the  lake  as — 

"  Clothed  with  his  breath,  and  looking  as  he  walked, 
Larger  than  human  on  the  frozen  hills." 

Many  of  his  pithy  lines  have  taken  root  in  the  memory  of  the  Eng- 
lish people,  such  as  these — 

"  'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and  lost, 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all." 

"  For  words,  like  Nature,  half  reveal, 
And  half  conceal,  the  soul  within." 

"  Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets, 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood." 


7.  Elizabeth  Barrett  Barrett,  afterwards  Mrs  Browning,  the 
greatest  poetess  of  this  century,  was  born  in  London  in  the  year 
1806.  She  wrote  verses  "at  the  age  of  eight — and  earlier,"  she 
says  ;  and  her  first  volume  of  poems  was  published  when  she  was 
seventeen.  When  still  a  girl,  she  broke  a  blood-vessel  upon  the 
lungs,  was  ordered  to  a  warmer  climate  than  that  of  London  ;  and 
her  brother,  whom  she  loved  very  dearly,  took  her  down  to  Tor- 
quay. There  a  terrible  tragedy  was  enacted  before  her  eyes.  One 
day  the  weather  and  the  water  looked  very  tempting  ;  her  brother 
took  a  sailing-boat  for  a  short  cruise  in  Torbay ;  the  boat  went  down 
in  front  of  the  house,  and  in  view  of  his  sister  ;  the  body  was  never 
recovered.  This  sad  event  completely  destroyed  her  already  weak 
health  ;  she  returned  to  London,  and  spent  several  years  in  a  dark- 
ened room.     Here  she  "  read  almost  every  book  worth  reading  in 


436  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

almost  every  language,  and  gave  herself  heart  and  soul  to  that 
poetry  of  which  she  seemed  born  to  be  the  priestess."  This  way  of 
life  lasted  for  many  years  ;  and,  in  the  course  of  it,  she  published  sev- 
eral volumes  of  noble  verse.  In  1846  she  married  Robert  Browning, 
also  a  great  poet.  In  1856  she  brought  out  Aurora  Leigh,  her 
longest,  and  probably  also  her  greatest,  poem.  Mr  Ruskin  called 
it  "  the  greatest  poem  which  the  century  has  produced  in  any  lan- 
guage ; "  but  this  is  going  too  far. — Mrs  Browning  will  probably  be 
longest  remembered  by  her  incomparable  sonnets  and  by  her  lyrics, 
which  are  full  of  pathos  and  passion.  Perhaps  her  two  finest  poems 
in  this  kind  are  the  Cry  of  the  Children  and  Cowper's  Grave. 
All  her  poems  show  an  enormous  power  of  eloquent,  penetrating,  and 
picturesque  language  ;  and  many  of  them  are  melodious  with  a  rich 
and  wonderful  music.     She  died  in  1861. 


8.  Robert  Browning,  the  most  daring  and  original  poet  of  the 
century,  was  born  in  Camberwell  in  the  year  1812,  and  died  at  Venice 
in  1889.  He  was  privately  educated.  In  1835  he  published  his 
poem  Paracelsus,  which  many  wondered  at,  but  few  read.  It  was 
the  story  of  a  man  who  had  lost  his  way  in  the  mazes  of  thought 
about  life, — about  its  why  and  wherefore, — about  this  world  and  the 
next, — about  himself  and  his  relations  to  God  and  his  fellow-men. 
Robert  Browning  produced  many  plays,  but  they  are  more  fit 
for  reading  in  the  study  than  for  acting  on  the  stage.  His  greatest 
work  is  The  Ring  and  the  Book ;  and  it  is  most  probably  by  this 
that  his  name  will  live  in  future  ages.  Of  his  minor  poems,  the  best 
known  and  most  popular  is  The  Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin — a  poem 
which  is  a  great  favourite  with  all  young  people,  from  the  pictur- 
esqueness  and  vigour  of  the  verse.  The  most  deeply  pathetic  of  his 
minor  poems  is  Evelyn  Hope : — 

"  So,  hush, — I  will  give  you  this  leaf  to  keep — 
See,  I  shut  it  inside  the  sweet  cold  hand, 
There !  that  is  our  secret !  go  to  sleep ; 

You  will  wake,  and  remember,  and  understand." 

9.  Browning's  Style. — Browning's  language  is  almost  always 
very  hard  to  understand  ;  but  the  meaning,  when  we  have  got  at 
it,  is  well  worth  all  the  trouble  that  may  have  been  taken  to  reach 
it.  His  poems  are  more  full  of  thought  and  more  rich  in  experience 
than  those  of  any  other  English  writer  except  Shakspeare.  The 
thoughts  and  emotions  which  throng  his  mind  at  the  same  moment 
so  crowd  upon  and  jostle  each  other,  become  so  inextricably  inter- 
mingled, that  it  is  very  often  extremely  difficult  for  us  to  make  out 


SECOND  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  437 

any  meaning  at  all.  Then  many  of  his  thoughts  are  so  subtle  and  so 
profound  that  they  cannot  easily  be  drawn  up  from  the  depths  in 
which  they  lie.  No  man  can  write  with  greater  directness,  greater 
lyric  vigour,  fire,  and  impulse,  than  Browning  when  he  chooses — 
write  more  clearly  and  forcibly  about  such  subjects  as  love  and  war  ; 
but  it  is  very  seldom  that  he  does  choose.  The  infinite  complexity 
of  human  life  and  its  manifold  experiences  have  seized  and  im- 
prisoned his  imagination  ;  and  it  is  not  often  that  he  speaks  in  a 
clear,  free  voice. 


10.  Matthew  Arnold,  one  of  the  finest  poets  and  noblest  stylists  of 
the  age,  was  born  at  Laleham,  near  Staines,  in  the  year  1822,  and  died 
in  1883.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  great  Dr  Arnold,  the  famous 
Head-master  of  Rugby.  He  was  educated  at  Winchester  and  Rugby, 
from  which  latter  school  he  proceeded  to  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
The  Newdigate  prize  for  English  verse  was  won  by  him  in  1843 — 
the  subject  of  his  poem  being  Cromwell.  His  first  volume  of 
poems  was  published  in  1849.  In  the  year  1851  he  was  appointed 
one  of  H.M.  Inspectors  of  Schools ;  and  he  held  that  oflice  up  to  the 
year  1885.  In  1857  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Poetry  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford.  In  1868  appeared  a  new  volume  with  the  simple 
title  of  New  Poems;  and,  after  that,  Arnold  produced  a  large 
number  of  books,  mostly  in  prose.  He  is  no  less  famous  as  a 
critic  than  as  a  poet ;  and  his  prose  is  singularly  beautiful  and 
musical. 

11.  Arnold's  Style. — The  chief  qualities  of  his  verse  are  clear- 
ness, simplicity,  strong  directness,  noble  and  musical  rhythm,  and  a 
certain  intense  calm.  His  lines  on  Morality  give  a  good  idea  of  his 
style : — 

"  We  cannot  kindle  when  we  will 
The  fire  that  in  the  heart  resides: 
The  spirit  bloweth  and  is  still 
In  mystery  our  soul  abides: 

But  tasks  in  hours  of  insight  willed 
Can  be  through  hours  of  gloom  fulfilled. 

"  With  aching  hands  and  bleeding  feet 
We  dig  and  heap,  lay  stone  on  stone ; 
We  bear  the  burden  and  the  heat 
Of  the  long  day,  and  wish  'twere  done. 

Not  till  the  hours  of  light  return, 

All  we  have  built  do  we  discern." 

His  finest  poem  in  blank  verse  is  his  Sohrab  and  Rustum — a  tale 


438  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  the  Tartar  wastes.  One  of  his  noblest  poems,  called  Rugby 
Chapel,  describes  the  strong  and  elevated  character  of  his  father, 
the  Head-master  of  Rugby. — His  prose  is  remarkable  for  its  lucidity, 
its  pleasant  and  almost  conversational  rhythm,  and  its  perfection  of 
language. 


12.  William  Morris,  a  great  narrative  poet,  was  born  near  London 
in  the  year  1834.  He  was  educated  at  Marlborough  and  at  Exeter 
College,  Oxford.  In  1858  appeared  his  first  volume  of  poems.  In 
1863  he  began  a  business  for  the  production  of  artistic  wall-paper, 
stained  glass,  and  furniture ;  he  had  a  shop  for  the  sale  of  these 
works  of  art  in  Oxford  Street,  London  ;  and  he  devoted  most  of  his 
time  to  drawing  and  designing  for  artistic  manufacturers.  His 
poem,  The  Life  and  Deatu  of  Jason,  appeared  in  1867  ;  and  his 
magnificent  series  of  narrative  poems — The  Earthly  Paradise — 
was  published  in  the  years  from  1868  and  1870.  'The  Earthly 
Paradise '  consists  of  twenty-four  tales  in  verse,  set  in  a  framework 
much  like  that  of  Chaucer's  '  Canterbury  Tales.'  The  poetic  power 
in  these  tales  is  second  only  to  that  of  Chaucer  ;  and  Morris  con- 
stantly acknowledged  himself  to  be  a  pupil  of  Chaucer's — 

"Thou,  my  Master  still, 
"Whatever  feet  have  climbed  Parnassus'  hill." 

Mr  Morris  also  translated  the  iEneid  of  Virgil,  and  several  works 
from  the  Icelandic.     He  died  in  the  year  1896. 

13.  Morris's  Style. — Clearness,  strength,  music,  picturesqueness, 
and  easy  flow,  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  Morris's  style.  Of  the 
month  of  April  he  says  : — 

"  0  fair  midspring,  besung  so  oft  and  oft, 
How  can  I  praise  thy  loveliness  enow? 
Thy  sun  that  burns  not,  and  thy  breezes  soft 
That  o'er  the  blossoms  of  the  orchard  blow, 
The  thousand  things  that  'neath  the  young  leaves  grow 
The  hopes  and  chances  of  the  growing  year, 
Winter  forgotten  long,  and  summer  near." 

His  pictorial  power — the  power  of  bringing  a  person  or  a  scene  fully 
and  adequately  before  one's  eyes  by  the  aid  of  words  alone — is  as 
great  as  that  of  Chaucer.  The  following  is  his  picture  of  Edward 
III.  in  middle  age  : — 

"  Broad-browed  he  was,  hook-nosed,  with  wide  grey  eyes 
No  longer  eager  for  the  coming  prize, 


SECOND   HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  439 

But  keen  and  steadfast :   many  an  ageing  line, 

Half-hidden  by  his  sweeping  beard  and  tine, 

Ploughed  his  thin  cheeks  ;  his  hair  was  more  than  grey, 

And  like  to  one  he  seemed  whose  better  day 

Is  over  to  himself,  though  foolish  fame 

Shouts  louder  year  by  year  his  empty  name. 

Unarmed  he  was,  nor  clad  upon  that  morn 

Much  like  a  king:   an  ivory  hunting-horn 

Was  slung  about  him,  rich  with  gems  and  gold, 

And  a  great  white  ger-falcon  did  he  hold 

Upon  his  fist ;   before  his  feet  there  sat 

A  scrivener  making  notes  of  this  and  that 

As  the  King  bade  him,  and  behind  his  chair 

His  captains  stood  in  armour  rich  and  fair." 

Morris's  stores  of  language  are  as  rich  as  Spenser's  ;  and  he  has  much 
the  same  copious  and  musical  flow  of  poetic  words  and  phrases. 


14.  William  Makepeace  Thackeray  (1811-1863),  one  of  the 
most  original  of  English  novelists,  was  born  at  Calcutta  in  the  year 
1811.  The  son  of  a  gentleman  high  in  the  civil  service  of  the  East 
India  Company,  he  was  sent  to  England  to  be  educated,  and  was 
some  years  at  Charterhouse  School,  where  one  of  his  schoolfellows 
was  Alfred  Tennyson.  He  then  went  on  to  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, which  he  left  without  taking  a  degree.  Painting  was  the 
profession  that  he  at  first  chose  ;  and  he  studied  art  both  in  France 
and  Germany.  At  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  however,  he  discovered 
that  he  was  on  a  false  tack,  gave  up  painting,  and  took  to  literary 
work  as  his  true  field.  He  contributed  many  pleasant  articles  to 
*  Eraser's  Magazine,'  under  the  name  of  Michael  Angelo  Titmarsh ; 
and  one  of  his  most  beautiful  and  most  pathetic  stories,  The  Great 
Hoggarty  Diamond,  was  also  written  under  this  name.  He  did 
not,  however,  take  his  true  place  as  an  English  novelist  of  the  first 
rank  until  the  year  1847,  when  he  published  his  first  serial  novel, 
Vanity  Fair.  Readers  now  began  everywhere  to  class  him  with 
Charles  Dickens,  and  even  above  him.  His  most  beautiful  work  is 
perhaps  The  Newcomes ;  but  the  work  which  exhibits  most  fully 
the  wonderful  power  of  his  art  and  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
spirit  and  the  details  of  our  older  English  life  is  The  History  of 
Henry  Esmond — a  work  written  in  the  style  and  language  of  the 
days  of  Queen  Anne,  and  as  beautiful  as  anything  ever  done  by 
Addison  himself.     He  died  in  the  year  1863. 


15.  Charles  Dickens  (1812-1870),  the  most  popular  writer  of 


440  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

this  century,  was  born  at  Landport,  Portsmouth,  in  the  year  1812. 
His  delicate  constitution  debarred  him  from  mixing  in  boyish  sports, 
and  very  early  made  him  a  great  reader.  There  was  a  little  garret 
in  his  father's  house  where  a  small  collection  of  books  was  kept ; 
and,  hidden  away  in  this  room,  young  Charles  devoured  such  books 
as  the  '  Vicar  of  Wakefield,'  '  Robinson  Crusoe/  and  many  other 
famous  English  books.  This  was  in  Chatham.  The  family  next 
removed  to  London,  where  the  father  was  thrown  into  prison  for 
debt.  The  little  boy,  weakly  and  sensitive,  was  now  sent  to  work 
in  a  blacking  manufactory  at  six  shillings  a- week,  his  duty  being  to 
cover  the  blacking-pots  with  paper.  "  No  words  can  express,"  he 
says,  "  the  secret  agony  of  my  soul,  as  I  compared  these  my  everyday 
associates  with  those  of  my  happier  childhood,  and  felt  my  early  hopes 
of  growing  up  to  be  a  learned  and  distinguished  man  crushed  in  my 
breast.  .  .  .  The  misery  it  was  to  my  young  heart  to  believe  that, 
day  by  day,  what  I  had  learned,  and  thought,  and  delighted  in,  and 
raised  my  fancy  and  my  emulation  up  by,  was  passing  away  from 
me,  never  to  be  brought  back  any  more,  cannot  be  written."  When 
his  father's  affairs  took  a  turn  for  the  better,  he  was  sent  to  school ; 
but  it  was  to  a  school  where  "the  boys  trained  white  mice  much 
better  than  the  master  trained  the  boys."  In  fact,  his  true  educa- 
tion consisted  in  his  eager  perusal  of  a  large  number  of  miscellaneous 
books.  When  he  came  to  think  of  what  he  should  do  in  the  world, 
the  profession  of  reporter  took  his  fancy ;  and,  by  the  time  he  was 
nineteen,  he  had  made  himself  the  quickest  and  most  accurate — that 
is,  the  best  reporter  in  the  Gallery  of  the  House  of  Commons.  His 
first  work,  Sketches  by  Boz,  was  published  in  1836.  In  1837  ap- 
peared the  Pickwick  Papers ;  and  this  work  at  once  lifted  Dickens 
into  the  foremost  rank  as  a  popular  writer  of  fiction.  From  this  time 
he  was  almost  constantly  engaged  in  writing  novels.  His  Oliver 
Twist  and  David  Copperfield  contain  reminiscences  of  his  own 
life  ;  and  perhaps  the  latter  is  his  most  powerful  work.  "  Like 
many  fond  parents,"  he  wrote,  "I  have  in  my  heart  of  hearts  a 
favourite  child ;  and  his  name  is  David  Copperfield."  He  lived  with 
all  the  strength  of  his  heart  and  soul  in  the  creations  of  his  imagina- 
tion and  fancy  while  he  was  writing  about  them;  he  says  himself, 
"  No  one  can  ever  believe  this  narrative,  in  the  reading,  more  than  I 
believed  it  in  the  writing ; "  and  each  novel,  as  he  wrote  it,  made 
him  older  and  leaner.  Great  knowledge  of  the  lives  of  the  poor,  and 
great  sympathy  with  them,  were  among  his  most  striking  gifts  ;  and 
Sir  Arthur  Helps  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "  I  doubt  much  whether  there 
has  ever  been  a  writer  of  fiction  who  took  such  a  real  and  living 


SECOND   HALF  OF  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  441 

interest  in  the  world  about  him."     He  died  in  the  year  1870,  and 
was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

16.  Dickens's  Style.— His  style  is  easy,  flowing,  vigorous,  pictur- 
esque, and  humorous  ;  his  power  of  language  is  very  great  ;  and, 
when  he  is  writing  under  the  influence  of  strong  passion,  it  rises 
into  a  pure  and  noble  eloquence.  The  scenery — the  external  cir- 
cumstances of  his  characters,  are  steeped  in  the  same  colours  as  the 
characters  themselves  ;  everything  he  touches  seems  to  be  filled  with 
life  and  to  speak — to  look  happy  or  sorrowful, — to  reflect  the  feelings 
of  the  persons.  His  comic  and  humorous  powers  are  very  great ; 
but  his  tragic  power  is  also  enormous — his  power  of  depicting  the 
fiercest  passions  that  tear  the  human  breast, — avarice,  hate,  fear, 
revenge,  remorse.  The  great  American  statesman,  Daniel  "Webster, 
said  that  Dickens  had  done  more  to  better  the  condition  of  the 
English  poor  than  all  the  statesmen  Great  Britain  had  ever  sent  into 
the  English  ParUainent. 


17.  John  Ruskin  (1819-1900),  a  master  of  musical  English  prose, 
art-critic,  and  thinker,  was  born  in  London  in  the  year  1819.  In 
his  father's  house  he  was  accustomed  "  to  no  other  prospect  than 
that  of  the  brick  walls  over  the  way  ;  he  had  no  brothers,  nor 
sisters,  nor  companions."  To  his  London  birth  he  ascribed  the 
great  charm  that  the  beauties  of  nature  had  for  him  from  his  boy- 
hood :  he  felt  the  contrast  between  town  and  country,  and  saw 
what  no  country-bred  child  could  have  seen  in  sights  that  were 
usual  to  him  from  his  infancy.  He  was  educated  at  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  and  gained  the  Newdigate  prize  for  poetry  in  1839.  He 
at  first  devoted  himself  to  painting ;  but  his  true  and  strongest 
genius  lay  in  the  direction  of  literature.  In  1843  appeared  the 
first  volume  of  his  Modern  Painters,  which  is  perhaps  his  great- 
est work ;  and  the  four  other  volumes  were  published  between 
that  date  and  the  year  1860.  In  this  work  he  discusses  the  qualities 
and  the  merits  of  the  greatest  painters  of  the  English,  the  Italian, 
and  other  schools.  In  1851  he  produced  a  charming  fairy  tale, 
'The  King  of  the  Golden  River,  or  the  Black  Brothers.'  He  ha3 
written  on  architecture  also,  on  political  economy,  and  on  many 
other  social  subjects.  He  was  the  founder  of  a  society  called  "  The 
St.  George's  Guild,"  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  spread  abroad  sound 
notions  of  what  true  life  and  true  art  are,  and  especially  to  make 
the  life  of  the  poor  more  endurable  and  better  worth  living.  He 
died  at  Brantwood,  near  Coniston  Lake,  in  1900. 

18.  Buskin's  Style.  —A  glowing  eloquence,  a  splendid  and  full- 


442  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

flowing  music,  wealth  of  phrase,  aptness  of  epithet,  opulence  of 
ideas — all  these  qualities  characterise  the  prose  style  of  RuskiD. 
His  similes  are  daring,  but  always  true.  Speaking  of  the  countless 
statues  that  fill  the  innumerable  niches  of  the  cathedral  of  Milan,  he 
says  that  "  it  is  as  though  a  flight  of  angels  had  alighted  there  and 
been  struck  to  marble."  His  writings  are  full  of  the  wisest  sayings 
put  into  the  most  musical  and  beautiful  language.  Here  are  a 
few  :  — 

"  Every  act,  every  impulse,  of  virtue  and  vice,  affects  in  any  creature,  face, 
voice,  nervous  power,  and  vigour  and  harmony  of  invention,  at  once.  Perse- 
verance in  Tightness  of  human  conduct  renders,  after  a  certain  number  of  gen- 
erations, human  art  possible  ;  every  sin  clouds  it,  be  it  ever  so  little  a  one  ;  and 
persistent  vicious  living  and  following  of  pleasure  render,  after  a  certain  number 
of  generations,  all  art  impossible." 

"  In  mortals,  there  is  a  care  for  trifles,  which  proceeds  from  love  and  con- 
science, and  is  most  holy  ;  and  a  care  for  trifles,  which  comes  of  idleness  and 
frivolity,  and  is  most  base.  And  so,  also,  there  is  a  gravity  proceeding  from 
dulness  and  mere  incapability  of  enjoyment,  which  is  most  base. " 

,  His  power  of  painting  in  words  is  incomparably  greater  than  that  of 
any  other  English  author  :  he  almost  infuses  colour  into  his  words 
and  phrases,  so  full  are  they  of  pictorial  power.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  give  any  adequate  idea  of  this  power  here  ;  but  a  few  lines 
may  suffice  for  the  present : — 

"  The  noonday  sun  came  slanting  down  the  rocky  slopes  of  La  Riccia,  and 
its  masses  of  enlarged  and  tall  foliage,  whose  autumnal  tints  were  mixed  with 
the  wet  verdure  of  a  thousand  evergreens,  were  penetrated  with  it  as  with  rain. 
I  cannot  call  it  colour  ;  it  was  conflagration.  Purple,  and  crimson,  and  scarlet, 
like  the  curtains  of  God's  tabernacle,  the  rejoicing  trees  sank  into  the  valley  in 
showers  of  light,  every  separate  leaf  quivered  with  buoyant  and  burning  life  ; 
each,  as  it  turned  to  reflect  or  to  transmit  the  sunbeam,  first  a  torch  and  then 
an  emerald." 


19.  George  Eliot  (the  literary  name  for  Marian  Evans,  1819- 
1880),  one  of  our  greatest  writers,  was  born  in  Warwickshire  in  the 
year  1819.  She  was  well  and  carefully  educated  ;  and  her  own 
serious  and  studious  character  made  her  a  careful  thinker  and  a 
most  diligent  reader.  For  some  time  the  famous  Herbert  Spencer 
was  her  tutor  ;  and  under  his  care  her  mind  developed  with  surpris- 
ing rapidity.  She  taught  herself  German,  French,  Italian — studied 
the  best  works  in  the  literature  of  these  languages  ;  and  she  was  also 
fairly  mistress  of  Greek  and  Latin.  Besides  all  these,  she  was  an 
accomplished  musician. — She  was  for  some  time  assistant-editor  of 
the  '  Westminster  Keview.'     The  first  of  her  works  which  called  the 


SECOND  HALF  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  443 

attention  of  the  public  to  her  astonishing  skiU  and  power  as  a 
novelist  was  her  Scenes  of  Clerical  Life.  Her  most  popular 
novel,  Adam  Bede,  appeared  in  1859;  Romola  in  1863;  and 
Middlemarch  in  1872.  She  has  also  written  a  good  deal  of  poetry, 
among  other  volumes  that  entitled  The  Legend  of  Jubal,  and 
other  Poems.  One  of  her  best  poems  is  The  Spanish  Gypsy. 
She  died  in  the  year  1880. 

20.  George  Eliot's  Style. — Her  style  is  everywhere  pure  and 
strong,  of  the  best  and  most  vigorous  English,  not  only  broad  in  its 
power,  but  often  intense  in  its  description  of  character  and  situation, 
and  always  singularly  adequate  to  the  thought.  Probably  no  novelist 
knew  the  English  character — especially  in  the  Midlands — so  well 
as  she,  or  could  analyse  it  with  so  much  subtlety  and  truth.  She 
is  entirely  mistress  of  the  country  dialects.  In  humour,  pathos, 
knowledge  of  character,  power  of  putting  a  portrait  firmly  upon  the 
canvas,  no  writer  surpasses  her,  and  few  come  near  her.  Her  power 
is  sometimes  almost  Shakespearian.  Like  Shakespeare,  she  gives  us 
a  large  number  of  wise  sayings,  expressed  in  the  pithiest  language. 
The  following  are  a  few  : — 

"  It  is  never  too  late  to  be  what  you  might  have  been. " 
"  It  is  easy  finding  reasons  why  other  people  should  be  patient." 
"  Genius,  at  first,  is  little  more  than  a  great  capacity  for  receiving  discipline." 
"Things  are  not  so  ill  with  you  and  me  as  they  might  have  been,  half  owing 
to  the  number  who  lived  faithfully  a  hidden  life,  and  rest  in  un visited  tombs." 

"  Nature  never  makes  men  who  are  at  once  energetically  sympathetic  and 
minutely  calculating." 

"  To  the  far  woods  he  wandered,  listening, 
And  heard  the  birds  their  little  stories  sing 
In  notes  whose  rise  and  fall  seem  melted  speech — 
Melted  with  tears,  smiles,  glances— that  can  reach 
More  quickly  through  our  frame's  deep-winding  night, 
And  without  thought  raise  thought's  best  fruit,  delight." 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH  LITEKATUEE. 


Writers. 


(Author  unknown.) 


CAEDMON. 
A  secular  monk  of 
Whitby. 
Died  about  680. 


BAEDA. 

672-735. 

"The  Venerable 
Bede,"  a  monk  of  Jar- 
row-on-Tyne. 

ALFRED  THE 
GREAT. 

849-901. 

King  ;  translator ; 
prose-writer. 


Compiled  by  monks 
in  various  monaster  - 


ASSER. 
Bishop     of     Sher- 
borne.   Died  909  (?) 


(Author  unknown.) 


LAYAMON. 

/.  X200. 
A  priest  of  Ernley- 
on-Severn. 


Works. 


v  Beowulf  (brought  over  by 
Saxons  and  Angles  from  the 
Continent). 

Poems  on  the  Creation  and 
other  subjects  taken  from 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

An  Ecclesiastical  History  in 
Latin.  A  translation  of  St 
John's  Gospel  into  English 
(lost). 


Translated  into  the  English 
of  Wessex,  Bede's  Ecclesi- 
astical History  and  other 
Latin  works.  Is  said  to 
have  begun  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  875- 
1154. 


Life  of  King  Alfred. 


A  poem  entitled  The  Grave. 


The  Brut  (1205),  a  poem  on 
Brutus,  the  supposed  first 
settler  in  Britain. 


S 


Contemporary 
Events. 


Edwin  (of  Deira), 
King  of  the 
Angles,  baptis- 
ed 627. 


First  landing  of 
the  Danes,  787. 


The  University 
of  Oxford  is 
said  to  have 
been  founded 
in  this  reign. 


John  ascended 
the  throne  in 
1199. 


Cen- 
turies. 


500 


600 


700 


800 


900 


1000 


1100 


446 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


Writers. 


ORM  OR  ORMIN. 
/.  1200  (?) 

A  canon  of  the  Order 
of  St.  Augustine. 

ROBERT  OF 
GLOUCESTER. 

fl.  1 260-1300. 


ROBERT  OF 
BRUNNE. 
fl.  1288-1338. 

(Robert  Manning  of 
Bourne  in  Lines.) 


SIR  JOHN 
MANDEV1LLE. 
d.  1372. 

Fictitious  name ; 
perhaps  one  John 
Burgoyne. 

JOHN  BARBOUR. 

1316-1395. 

Archdeacon  of 
Aberdeen. 

JOHN  WYCLIF. 
1324-1384. 

Vicar  of  Lutter- 
worth, in  Leicester- 
shire. 

JOHN  GOWER. 
1325-1408. 
A   country  gentle- 
man of  Kent ;    prob- 
ably also  a  lawyer. 

WILLIAM 
LANGLANDE. 
1332-1400. 

Born  in  Shropshire. 


Works. 


The  Ormulum,  a  set  of  re- 
ligious services  in  metre. 


Chronicle    of    England    in 
rhyme  • 


Chronicle    of    England    in 
rhyme ;     Handlyng    Sinne 


The  Voyaige  and  Travaile. 

Travels  to  Jerusalem,  India, 
and  other  countries,  written 
in  Latin.  French,  and  Eng- 
lish. The  first  writer  "  in 
formed  English." 


The  Bruce  (1375),  a  poem 
written  in  the  Northern  Eng- 
lish or  "  Scottish  "  dialect. 


Translation  of  the  Bihle  from 
the  Latin  version ;  and  many 
tracts  and  pamphlets  on 
Church  reform. 


Vox  Clamantis,  Confessio 
Amantis,  Speculum  Medi- 
tantis  (1393);  and  poems 
in  French  and  Latin. 


Vision  concerning  Piers  the 
Plowman  —  three  editions 
(1362-92). 


Contemporary 
Events. 


Magna  Charta, 
1215. 


Henry  III.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1216. 

University  of 
Cambridge 
founded,  1231. 

Edward  I.  as- 
cends the 
throne.  1272. 


Conquest 
Wales,  1284. 


of 


Edward  II.  as- 
c  e  n  d  s  the 
throne,  1307. 


Battle    of    Ban- 
nockburn,  1314. 


Edward  III. 
ascends  the 
throne,  1327. 


Hundred    Years' 
War     begins, 

1338. 


Battle  of  Crecy, 
1346. 


Cen- 
turies. 


The  Black 
Death     " 


1349. 
1361. 


Battle  of  Poitiers, 
1356. 


First  law-plead- 
ings in  English, 
1362. 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 


447 


Writers. 


Works. 


Contemporary 
Events. 


Cen- 
turies. 


GEOFFREY 
CHAUCER 
1340-1400. 

Poet;  courtier; 
soldier ;  diplomatist ; 
Comptroller  of  the 
Customs :  Clerk  of  the 
King's  Works ;  M.P. 


JAMES  I.   OF 
SCOTLAND. 

I394-I437- 

Prisoner  in  Eng- 
land, and  educated 
there,  in  1405-24. 


WILLIAM 
CAXTON. 
1422-1491. 

Mercer ;  printer  ; 
translator;  prose- 
writer. 


•The  Canterbury  Tales  (1384- 
98),  of  which  the  best  is  the 
Knightes  Tale.  Dryden 
called  him  "a  perpetual 
fountain  of  good  sense. " 


The  King's  Quair  (=Book), 
a  poem  in  the  style  of  Chau- 
cer. 


The  Dictes  and  Sayings  of 
the  Philosophers  (1477) 
the  first  book  printed  in 
England ;  Lives  of  the 
Fathers,  "finished  on  the 
last  day  of  his  life;"  and 
many  other  works. 


WILLIAM 
DUNBAR. 

I465(?)-I53<>(?) 

Franciscan  or  Grey 

Friar ;     Secretary    to 

a  Scotch  embassy  to 

France. 

GAWAIN 
DOUGLAS. 
1474-1522. 

Bishop  of  Dunkeld, 
in  Perthshire. 


WILLIAM 
TYNDALE. 
1484-1536. 

Student  of  theology; 
translator.  Burnt  at 
Antwerp  for  heresy. 


The  Golden  Terge ;  the 
Dance  of  the  Seven  Deadly 
Sins ;  and  other  poems. 
He  has  been  called  "the 
Chaucer  of  Scotland." 


Palace  of  Honour ;  transla- 
tion of  Virgil's  JEneid— 
the  first  translation  of  any 
Latin  author  into  verse. 
Douglas  wrote  in  Northern 
English. 

New  Testament  translated 
(1525-34);  the  Five  Books 
of  Moses  translated  (1530). 
This  translation  is  the  basis 
of  the  Authorised  Version. 


Richard  II.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1377. 


Wat  Tyler's  insur- 
rection, 1381. 


Henry  IV.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1399. 


Henry  V.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1415. 

Battle  of  Agin- 
court,  1415. 

Henry  VI.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1422. 

Invention  of 
Printing,  1438- 
45. 


Jack    Cade's    in- 
surrection, 1450. 


End  of  the  Hun- 
dred Years' War, 
1453. 


Wars     of     the 
Roses,  1455-86. 


Edward  IV.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1461. 


Edward  V.  king, 
1483. 


1400 


1450 


448 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


Writers. 


SIR  THOMAS 
MORE. 

1478-1535- 

Lord  High  Chancel- 
lor  ;  writer  on  social 
topics ;  historian. 

SIR  DAVID 
LYNDESAY. 
1490-1555. 

Tutor  of  Prince 
James  of  Scotland 
(James  V.) ;  ' '  Lord 
Lyon  King-at-Arms ; " 
poet. 

ROGER  ASCHAM. 
1515-1568. 

Lecturer  on  Greek 
at  Cambridge ;  tutor 
to  Queen  Elizabeth. 


JOHN  FOXE. 
1516-1587. 

An  English  clergy- 
man. Corrector  for 
the  press  at  Basle ; 
Prebendary  of  Salis- 
bury Cathedral; 
prose-writer. 

EDMUND 
SPENSER 

1552-1599. 

Secretary  to  Viceroy 
of  Ireland;  political 
writer;  poet. 

SIR  WALTER 
RALEIGH. 
1552-1618. 

Courtier ;  states- 
man ;  sailor ;  colon- 
iser; historian. 


RICHARD 
HOOKER. 

I553-i600. 

English  clergyman ; 
Master  of  the  Temple ; 
Rector  of  Boscombe, 
in  the  diocese  of  Salis- 
bury. 


Works. 


History  of  King  Edward  V., 
and  of  his  brother,  and  of 
Eichard  HI.  (1513) ;  .Utopia 
(="The  Land  of  No- 
where "),  written  in  Latin ; 
and  other  prose  works. 

Lyndesay's  Dream(1528);  The 
Complaint  (1529^ ;  A  Satire 
of  the  Three  Estates  (1535) 
—a  "  morality-play.  * 


Toxophilns  (1544),  a  treatise 
on  shooting  with  the  bow ; 
The  Scholemastre  (1570). 
"  Ascham  is  plain  and  strong 
in  his  style,  but  without 
grace  or  warmth." 


The  Book  of  Martyrs  (1563), 
an  account  of  the  chief  Pro- 
testant martyrs. 


Shepheard's  Calendar  (1579) ; 
Faerie  Queene,  in  six  books 
(1590-96). 


History  of  the  World  (1614), 
written  during  the  author's 
imprisonment  in  the  Tower 
of  London. 


Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity 
(1594).  This  book  is  an  elo- 
quent defence  of  the  Church 
of  England.  The  writer, 
from  his  excellent  judgment, 
is  generally  called  "the 
judicious  Hooker." 


Contemporary 
Events. 


Richard  III.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1483. 


Battle     of    Bos- 
worth,  1485. 


Henry  VII.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1485. 


Greek  began  to 
be  taught  in 
England  about 
1497. 

Henry  VIII.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1509. 

Battle  of  Flod- 
den,  1513. 

"Wolsey  Cardinal 
and  Lord  High 
Chancellor, 
1515. 

Sir  Thomas  More 
first  layman 
who  was  Lord 
High  Chancel- 
lor, 1529. 

Reformation  in 
England  begins 
about  1534. 

Edward   VI. 
cends       the 
throne,  1547. 

Mary  Tudor 
ascends  the 
throne,  1553. 


Cranmer    burnt, 
1556. 


Elizabeth  as- 
cends the 
throne.  1558. 


1550 


TABLES   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 


449 


Writers. 


SIR  PHILIP 
SIDNEY. 
I554-IS86. 

Courtier ;    general  ; 
romance-writer. 


FRANCIS  BACON. 
1561-1626. 

Viscount  St  Al- 
bans ;  Lord  High 
Chancellor  of  Eng- 
land; lawyer;  philo- 
sopher; essayist. 


WILLIAM 
SHAKESPEARE. 

1 564-1616. 

Actor ;     owner    of 

theatre;  play-writer; 

poet    Born  and  died 

at  Stratford-on-Avon. 


BEN  JONSON. 

1574-1637. 

Dramatist ;     poet 
prose-writer. 


WILLIAM 

DRUMMOND  ("of 

Hawthorndkn"). 

1585-1649. 

Scottish     poet ; 

friend  of  Ben  Jonson. 


THOMAS  HOBBES. 
1588-1679. 

Philosopher;  prose- 


writer ; 
Homer. 


translator  of 


Works. 


Arcadia,  a  romance  (1580). 
Defence  of  Poesie,  pub- 
lished after  his  death  (in 
1595).     Sonnets. 


Essays  (1597);  Advancement 
of  Learning  (1605);.  Novum 
Organ um  (1620) ;  and  other 
works  on  methods  of  inquiry 
into  nature. 


Thirty  -  seven  plays.  His 
greatest  tragedies  are  Ham- 
let, Lear,  and  Othello.  His 
best  comedies  are  Midsum- 
mer Night's  Dream,  H  The 
Merchant  of  Venice,  and- As 
You  Like  It.  His  best  his- 
torical plays  are  Julius 
Ccesar  and  ,Richard  III. 
Many  minor  poems— chiefly 
sonnets.  He  wrote  no  prose. 


Tragedies  and  comedies.  Best 
plays :  Volpone  or  the  Fox; 
Every  Man  in  his  Humour. 


Sonnets  and  poems. 


The  Leviathan  (1651),  a 
work  on  politics  and  moral 
philosophy. 


contemporart 
Events. 


Hawkins  begins 
slave  trade  in 
1562. 


Rizzio  murdered, 
1566. 


Marlowe,  Dek- 
ker,  Chapman, 
Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  Ford, 
Webster,  Ben 
Jonson,  and 
other  drama- 
tists, were  con- 
temporaries of 
Shakspeare. 


Drake  sails  round 
the  world,  1577. 

Execution  of 
Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  1587. 


Raleigh    in    Vir- 
ginia, 1584. 

Babington's  Plot, 
1586. 

Spanish  Armada, 


Battle    of    Ivry, 
1590. 


De- 
cades. 


1560 


1570 


1580 


1590 


450 


TABLES   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


•      Writers. 


SIR  THOMAS 
BROWNE. 
1605-1682. 

Physician   at   Nor- 
wich. 


JOHN  MILTON. 
1608- 1674. 

Student ;  political 
writer ;  poet ;  For- 
eign (or  "  Latin  ") 
Secretary  to  Crom- 
well. Became  blind 
from  over-work  in 
1654. 


SAMUEL  BUTLER. 
1612-1680. 

Literary  man ; 
secretary  to  the  Earl 
of  Carbery. 


JEREMY  TAYLOR. 
1613-1667. 

English  clergyman ; 
Bishop  of  Down  and 
Connor  in  Ireland. 


JOHN  BUNYAN. 
1628-1688. 

Tinker  and  travel- 
ling pseacher. 


JOHN  DRYDEN. 
1631-1700. 

Poet  -  Laureate 
and  Historiographer- 
Royal  ;  playwright ; 
poet;  prose- writer. 


Works. 


Religio  Medici  (  =  "  The  Re- 
ligion of  a  Physician"); 
Urn  -  Burial ;  and  other 
prose  works. 


Minor  Poems ;  Paradise 
Lost;  Paradise  Regained; 
Samson  Agonistes.  Many 
prose  works,  the  best  being 
Areopagitica,  a  speech  for 
the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed 
Printing. 


Hndibras,  a  mock  -  heroic 
poem,  written  to  ridicule 
the  Puritan  and  Parliament- 
arian party. 


,Holy  Living  and  Holy  Dy- 
ing (1649) ;  and  a  number 
of  other  religious  books. 


The  Pilgrim's  Progress 
(1678);  the  Holy  War;  and 
other  religious  works. 


Annus  Mirabilis  (  =  "The 
Wonderful  Year,"  1665-66, 
on  the  Plague  and  the  Fire 
of  London) ;  Absalom  and 
Achitophel  (1681),  a  poem 
on  political  parties ;  Hind 
and  Panther  (1687),  a  re- 
ligious poem.  He  also 
wrote  many  plays,  some 
odes,  and  a  translation  of 
Virgil's  JEneid.  His  prose 
consists  chiefly  of  prefaces 
and  introductions  to  his 
poems. 


Contemporary 

Events. 


Australia  dis- 
covered, 1601. 

James  I.  as- 
cends the 
throne  in  1603. 


Hampton  Court 
Conference  for 
translation  of 
Bible,  1604-11. 


Gunpowder  Plot, 
1605. 


Execution     of 
Raleigh,  1618. 


De- 
cades. 


1600 


1610 


Charles  I.  as- 
cends the 
throne  in  1625. 

Petition  of  Right, 
1628. 


No  Parliament 
from  1629-40. 


Scottish  National 
Covenant,  1638. 


Long  Parliament, 
1640-53. 


Marston  Moor, 
1644. 


Execution     ofl 
Charles  I.,  1649. 1 


1620 


1630 


1640 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


451 


Writers. 


JOHN  LOCKE. 
1632-1704. 

Diplomatist;  Secre- 
tary to  the  Board  of 
Trade ;  philosopher ; 
prose- writer. 


DANIEL  DEFOE. 
1661-1731. 

Literary  man  : 
pamphleteer;  journal- 
ist; member  of  Com- 
mission on  Union 
with  Scotland. 


JONATHAN 
SWLFT. 

1667-174S 

English  clergyman ; 
literary  man ;  satir- 
ist; prose-writer ; 
poet;  Dean  of  St  Pat- 
rick's, in  Dublin. 


SIR  RICHARD 
STEELE. 
1672*1729. 

Soldier;  literary 
man  :  courtier  ;  jour- 
nalist ;  M.P. 


JOSEPH  ADDISON. 

1672-1719. 

Essayist ;  poet ;  Sec- 
retary of  State  for  the 
Home  Department. 


ALEXANDER 
POPE. 
1688-1744. 
Poet 


Works. 


Essay  concerning;  the  Hu- 
man Understanding  (1690) ; 
Thoughts  on  Edncation ; 
and  other  prose  works. 


The  True-horn  Englishman 
(1701) ;  'Robinson  Crusoe 
(1719)  ;  Journal  of  the 
Plague  (1722) ;  and  more 
than  a  hundred  books  in 
all. 


Battle  of  the  Books:  Tale  of 
a  Tub  (1704),  an  allegory  on 
the  Churches  of  Rome,  Eng- 
land, and  Scotland ;' Gulli- 
ver's Travels  (1726) ;  a 
few  poems  ;  and  a  number 
of  very  vigorous  political 
pamphlets. 


Steele  founded  the  'Tatler,' 
'Spectator,'  'Guardian,'  and 
other  small  journals.  He 
also  wrote  some  plays. 


Essays  in  the  'Tatler,' 
'Spectator,'  and  'Guardian.' 
Cato,  a  Tragedy  (1713). 
Several  Poems  and  Hymns. 


Essay  on  Criticism  (1711); 

/  Rape  of  the  Lock  (1714) ; 

v  Translation  of  Homer's 
Iliad  and  Odyssey,  finished 
in  1726;  Dunciad  (1729); 
Essay  on  Han  (1739).  A 
few  prose  Essays,  and  a 
volume  of  Letters. 


Contemporary 
Events. 


The    Common- 
wealth, 1649-60. 


Cromwell  Lord 
Protector,  1653- 
58. 


Restoration,  1600. 


First   standing 
army,  1661. 


First  newspaper 
in  England, 
1663. 


The  Revolution, 
1688-9. 

Death  of  Anne 
and  Accession 
of  George  I., 
1714. 


Charles  II.,  pen- 
sioned by  Louis 
XIV.  of  France, 
1674. 


Marlborough's 
Campaigns, 
1702-11. 


De- 
cades. 


1650 


1660 


James  II.  as- 
cends the 
throne  in  1685. 

Revolution  of 
1688. 

William  III.  and 
Mary  II.  ascend 
the  throne,  1689. 

Battle  of  the 
Boyne,  1690. 


1670 


1680 


1690 


452 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 


Writers. 


JAMES  THOMSON. 
1700-1748. 

Poet. 


HENRY  FIELDING. 

I707-I754. 

Police  -  magistrate ; 
journalist;  novelist. 


DR    SAMUEL 
JOHNSON. 
1709-1784. 

Schoolmaster ;  lit- 
erary man;  essayist; 
poet;  dictionary- 
maker. 


DAVID  HUME. 

1711-1776. 

Librarian ;  Secret- 
ary to  the  French  Em- 
bassy ;  philosopher ; 
literary  man. 


THOMAS  GRAY. 

1716-1771. 

Student;  poet;  let- 
ter-writer ;  Professor 
of  Modern  History  in 
the  University  of 
Cambridge. 

TOBIAS  GEORGE 
SMOLLETT. 
1721-1771. 

Doctor;  pamphlet- 
eer ;  literary  hack ; 
novelist. 


OLIVER 
GOLDSMITH. 
1728-1774. 

Literary  man;  play- 
writer  ;  poet. 


Works. 


The  Seasons ;  a  poem  in  blank 
verse  (1730) :  The  Castle  of 
Indolence ;  a  mock  -  heroic 
poem  in  the  Spenserian  stan- 
za (1748). 


Joseph  Andrews  (1742); 
Amelia  (1751).  He  was 
"the  first  great  English 
novelist." 


London  (1738) ;  The  Vanity 
of  Human  Wishes  (1749) ; 
Dictionary  of  the  English 
Language  (1755);  Rasse- 
las  (1759);  Lives  of  the 
Poets  (1781).  He  also 
wrote  The  Idler,  The  Ram- 
bler, and  a  play  called  Irene. 


History  of  England  (1754- 
1761) ;  and  a  number  of 
philosophical  Essays.  His 
prose  is  singularly  clear, 
easy,  and  pleasant. 


Odes;  Elegy  Written  in  a 
Country  Churchyard  (1751) 
— one  of  the  most  perfect 
poems  in  our  language.  He 
was  a  great  stylist,  and  an 
extremely  careful  workman. 


Roderick    Random    (1748) ; 

v  Humphrey  Clinker  (1771). 
He  also  continued  Hume's 
History  of  England.  He 
published  also  some  Plays 
and  Poems. 


The  Traveller  (1764);  The 
.  Vicar  of  Wakefield  (1766) ; 
The  Deserted  Village  (1770); 
She  Stoops  to  Conquer— a 
'  Play  (1773)  ;  and  a  large 
number  of  books,  pam- 
phlets, and  compilations. 


Contemporary        De- 
Events,  cades. 


Censorship  of  the 
Press  abolished, 
1695. 

Queen  Anne 
ascends  the 
throne  in  1702. 


The  Jacobite  Re- 
bellion of  1745. 


Union  of  Eng- 
land and  Scot- 
land, 1707. 


George  I.  ascends 
the  throne  in 
1714. 


Rebellion  in  Scot- 
land in  1715. 


Rise  of  Method- 
ism,  Seven 
Years'  War, 
1756-63. 


George  II.  as- 
cends the 
throne,  1727. 


1700 


1710 


1720 


TABLES   OF   ENGLISH    LITERATURE. 


453 


Writers. 


ADAM  SMITH. 
1723-1790. 

Professor     in     the 
University  of  Glasgow. 


EDMUND  BURKE. 
1729-1797. 
M.P. ;  statesman ; 
"  the  first  man  in  the 
House  of  Commons ; " 
orator ;  writer  on  po- 
litical philosophy. 


WILLIAM 
COWPER. 
1731-1800. 

Commissioner  in 
Bankruptcy;  Clerk  of 
the  Journals  of  the 
House  of  Lords;  poet. 


EDWARD  GIBBON. 

1737-1794- 
Historian ;  M.P. 


ROBERT  BURNS. 
1759-1796. 

Farm-  labourer; 
ploughman ;  farmer ; 
excise-officer ;  lyrical 
poet. 


WOHKS. 


Contemporary 
Events. 


Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments    Carron   Iron 


(1759);  Inquiry  into  the 
Nature  and  Causes  of  the 
Wealth  of  Nations  (1776). 
He  was  the  founder  of  the 
science  of  political  economy. 


Essay  on  the  Sublime  and 
Beautiful  (1757)  W  Reflec- 
tions on  the  Revolution  of 
France  (1790) ;  Letters  on 
a  Regicide  Peace  (1797) ; 
and  many  other  works. 
"The  greatest  philosopher 
in  practice  the  world  ever 
saw. " 


Table  Talk  (1782) ;  John  Gil- 
pin (1785) ;  A  Translation 
of  Homer  (1791) ;  and  many 
other  Poems.  His  Letters, 
like  Gray's,  are  among  the 
best  in  the  language. 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire  (1776-87). 
"Heavily  laden  style  and 
monotonous  balance  of 
every  sentence." 


Poems  and  Songs  (1786-96). 
His  prose  consists  chiefly  of 
Letters.  "  His  pictures  of 
social  life,  of  quaint  humour, 
come  up  to  nature ;  and 
they  cannot  go  beyond  it." 


Works,  Stir- 
ling,  estab- 
lished, 1758. 
Mule-jenny  for 
cotton  -spin- 
ning, 1779. 


Outbreak  of 
French  Revolu- 
tion, 1789. 


First   Census, 
1801. 


Reports  of  Par- 
liamentary De- 
bates allowed, 
1771.  Penal 
law  of  1699 
against  Catho- 
lics repealed, 
1778. 


James  Watt's 
steam  -  engine, 
1759. 


Vaccination     by 
Jenner,  1799. 


De- 
cades 


1730 


1740 


1750 


454 


TABLES    OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 


Writers. 


WILLIAM 
WORDSWORTH. 
1770-1850. 

Distributor  of 
Stamps  for  the  coun- 
ty of  Westmoreland ; 
poet ;  poet-laureate. 


SIR  WALTER 
SCOTT. 
1771-1832. 

Clerk  to  the  Court 
of  Session  in  Edin- 
burgh; Scottish  bar- 
rister ;  poet ;  novelist. 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR 
COLERIDGE. 

1772-1834. 

Private  soldier; 
journalist ;  literary 
man ;  philosopher ; 
poet. 

ROBERT 
SOUTHEY. 
1774-1843. 

Literary  man; 
Quarterly  Reviewer ; 
historian  ;  poet  -  lau- 
reate. 


CHARLES  LAMB. 

1775-1834. 

Clerk  in  the  East 
India  House;  poet; 
prose-writer. 


WALTER  SAVAGE 
LANDOR. 

1775-1864. 
Poet;  prose-writer. 


Works. 


Lyrical  Ballads  (with  Cole- 
ridge, 1798) ;  The  Excursion 
(1814)  ;  Yarrow  Revisited 
(1835),  and  many  other 
poems.  The  Prelude  was 
published  after  his  death. 
"3is  prose,  which  is  very 
good,  consists  chiafly  of 
Prefaces  and  Introductions. 


Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel 
(1805) ;  Marmion  (1808) ; 
Lady  of  the  Lake  (1810) ; 
Waverley— the  first  of  the 
"  Waverley  Novels  " — was 
published  in  1814.  The 
1  •  Homer  of  Scotland. "  H  is 
prose  is  bright  and  fluent, 
but  very  inaccurate. 

The  Ancient  Mariner  (1798) ; 
Christabel  (1816);  -The 
Friend — a  Collection  of  Es- 
says (1812) ;,  Aids  to  Reflec- 
tion (1825).'  His  prose  is 
\ery  full  both  of  thought 
and  emotion. 


Joan  of  Arc  (1796) ;  Thalaba 
the  Destroyer  (1801) ;  The 
Curse  of  Kehama  (1810) ;  A 
History  of  Brazil;  The 
Doctor — a  Collection  of  Es- 
says jyLife  of  Nelson.  He 
wrote  more  than  a  hundred 
volumes.  He  was  "the  most 
ambitious  and  the  most  vol- 
uminous author  of  his  age." 

Poems  (1797);  'Tales  from 
Shakespeare  (1806) ;  .  The 
Essays  of  Elia  (1823-1833). 
One  of  the  finest  writers  of 
prose  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. 

Gebir  (1798) ;  Count  Julian 
(1812) ;  Imaginary  Conver- 
sations (1824-1846);  Dry 
Sticks  Faggoted  (1858).  He 
wrote  books  for  more  than 
sixty  years.  His  style  is 
full  of  vigour  and  sustained 


Contemporary 
Events. 


George  III.  as- 
cends the 
throne  in  1760. 


Napoleon  and 
Wellington 
born,  1769. 


Warren  Hastings 
in  India,  1772- 
85. 


American   De- 
claration    of 
Independence, 
1776. 


Alliance  of 
France  and 
America,  1778. 


De- 
cades. 


1760 


1770 


TABLES   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


455 


Writers. 


THOMAS 
CAMPBELL. 

1777-1844. 

Poet ;  literary  man 
editor. 


HENRY  HALLAM. 

I777-I859. 

Historian. 


THOMAS  MOORE. 
1779-1852. 

Poet;  prose-writer. 


THOMAS 
DE  QUINCEY. 

1785-1859. 

Essayist. 


LORD  BYRON 
(George  Gordon). 
1788-1824. 

Peer ;  poet ;  volun- 
teer to  Greece. 


Works. 


The  Pleasures  of  Hope  (1799); 
Poems  (1803);  Gertrude  of 
Wyoming,  Battle  of  the 
Baltic,  Hohenlinden,  etc. 
(1809).  He  also  wrote  some 
Historical  Works. 


View  of  Europe  during  the 
Middle  Ages  (1818) ;  Con- 
stitutional History  of  Eng- 
land (1827);  Introduction 
to  the  Literature  of  Europe 
(1839). 


Odes    and   Epistles    (1806); 

,  LaUa  Rookh  (1817);  His- 
tory of  Ireland  (1 827) ;  Life 
of  Byron  (1830) ;  Irish 
Melodies  (1834) ;  and  many 
prose  works. 


/Confessions  of  an  English 
Opium-Eater  (1821).  He 
wrote  also  on  many  subjects 
— philosophy,  poetry,  clas- 
sics, history,  politics.  His 
writings  fill  twenty  volumes. 
He  was  one  of  the  finest 
prose-writers  of  the  19th 
century. 


Hours  of  Idleness  (1807) ; 
English  Bards  and  Scotch 
Reviewers  (1809)  ;  <Jhilde 
Harold's  Pilgrimage  (1812- 
1818) ;  Hebrew  Melodies 
(1815) :  and  many  Plays. 
His  prose,  which  is  full  of 
vigour  and  animal  spirits,  is 
to  be  found  chiefly  in  his 
Letters. 


CON  TEMPORARY 
EVKNT8. 


Encyclopaedia 
Br itannica 
founded  in  1778. 


Liverpool  and 
Manchester 
Railway,  1830. 


United  Irish- 
men's Rebel- 
lion. French 
land  in  Ireland. 
1798. 


Db- 

CADKS. 


The  Times  pub- 
lished, 1785. 
Gas  first  used 
in    London 

streets,  1807. 


1780 


Greek  War  of 
Independence 
against  the 
Turks,  1822-9. 


456 


TABLES  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 


Writers. 


PERCY  BYSSHE 
SHELLEY. 


Poet. 


Z792-I822. 


JOHN  KEATS. 
1795-1821. 

Poet. 


THOMAS 
CARLYLE. 
1795-1881. 

Literary  man; 
poet;  translator; 
essayist ;  reviewer ; 
political  writer;  his- 
torian. 


LORD 
MACAULAY 
(Thomas  Babinqton). 
1800-1859. 

Barrister;  Edin- 
burgh Reviewer; 
M.P. ;  Member  of  the 
Supreme  Council  of 
India;  Cabinet  Minis- 
ter; poet;  essayist; 
historian;  peer. 


Works. 


Queen  Mab  (1810) ;'  Prome- 
theus Unbound— a  Tragedy 
(1819) ;  Ode  to  the  Skylark, 
The  Cloud  (1820) ;  Adonais 
(1821),  and  many  other 
poems ;  and  several 
works. 


Poems  (1817);  Endymion 
(1818) ;  .  Hyperion  (1820). 
"  Had  Keats  lived  to  the 
ordinary  age  of  man,  he 
would  have  been  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  poets." 


German  Romances— a  set  of 
Translations  (1827) ;.  Sartor 
Resartus  —  "  The  Tailor 
Repatched"  (1834);  'The 
French  Revolution  (1837) ; 
Heroes  and  Hero-Worship 
(1840) ;  Past  and  Present 
(1843);  Cromwell's  Letters 
and  Speeches  (1845) ;  Life 
of  Frederick  the  Great 
(1858-65).  "With  the  gift 
of  song,  Carlyle  would  have 
been  the  greatest  of  epic 
poets  since  Homer." 


Milton  (in  the  'Edinburgh 
Review,'  1825) ;  Lays  of 
Ancient  Rome  (1842) ;  His 
tory  of  England— unfinished 
(1849-59).  "His  pictorial 
faculty  is  amazing." 


Contemporary 

Events. 


Cape  of  Good 
Hope  taken, 
1795. 


Bonaparte 
Italy,  1796. 


Battle   of  the 
Nile,  1798. 


Union  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ire- 
land, 1801. 


Trafalgar  and 
Nelson,  1805. 

Peninsular  War, 
1808-14. 


Napoleon's  Inva- 
sion of  Russia ; 
Moscow  burnt, 
1812. 


War  with  United 
States,  1812-14. 

Battle  of  Water- 
loo, 1815. 

George  IV.  as- 
cends  the 
throne,  1820. 

Gas  first  manu- 
factured, 1792. 


Catholic    Eman- 
cipation, 1829. 


German  Empire 
re-established, 
1871. 


William  IV.  as- 
cends  the 
throne,  1830. 


The  Reform  Bill, 
1832. 


Total  Abolition 
of  Slavery, 
1834. 


TABLES  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


457 


Writers. 


LORD  LYTTON 
(Edwabd  Bulwkr). 
1803-1873. 

Novelist;  poet; 
dramatist;  M.P. ; 
Cabinet  Minister; 
peer. 


JOHN   STUART 
MILL. 
1806-1873. 

Clerk  in  the  East 
India  House ;  philos- 
opher; political 
writer;  M.P. ;  Lord 
Rector  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  St  Andrews. 


HENRY  W. 
LONGFELLOW. 
1807-1882. 

Professor  of  Mod- 
ern Languages  and 
Literature  in  Harvard 
University,  U.S.; 
poet;  prose-writer. 


LORD 
TENNYSON 
(Alfred  Tennyson). 
1809-1892. 

Poet ;    poet  -  laure- 
ate; peer. 


ELIZABETH  B. 
BARRETT 

(afterwards 
Mrs  Browning). 
1806-1861. 
Poet ;  prose- writer ; 
translator. 


Works. 


Israael  and  Other  Poems 
(1825);  Eugene  Aram 
(1832)  )/L&st  Days  of  Pom- 
peii (1834);  The  Caztons 
(1849);  My  Novel  (1853); 
Poems  (1865). 


System  of  Logic  (1843) ;  Prin- 
ciples of  Political  Economy 
(1848)  ;  Essay  on  Liberty 
(1859)  ;  .Autobiography 
(1873).  "For judicial  calm- 
ness, elevation  of  tone,  and 
freedom  from  personality, 
Mill  is  unrivalled  among  the 
writers  of  his  time. " 


Outre -Mer— a  Story  (1835); 
Hyperion -a  Story  (1839); 
Voices  of  the  Night  (1841) ; 

1  Evangeline  (1848) ;  Hia- 
watha (1855) ;  ^Aftermath 
(1873).  "His  tact  in  the 
use  of  language  is  probably 
the  chief  cause  of  his  suc- 


Poems  (1830)  ;\In  Memoriam 


Contemporary 
Events. 


Queen      Victoria 
ascends       the 
throne,  1837. 


Irish   Famine, 
1845. 


Repeal  of  the 
Corn  Laws, 
1846. 


Revolution  in 
Paris,  1851. 


Death  of  Welling- 
ton, 1852. 


Napoleon  III. 
Emperor  of  the 
French,  1852. 


De- 
cades. 


1840 


Russian 
1854-56. 


War, 


Franco -Austrian 


(1850) ;  Maud  (1855)  >,  Idylls  '     ™' 

of  the  King  (1859-85) ;  Queen 

Mary  — a    Drama    (1875); 

Becket— a    Drama    (1884) ; 

The   Foresters -a  Drama  Emancipation  of 

/iqoo\  Itussian     serfs 

VW4).  18(J1 


Prometheus  Bound  —  trans- 
lated from  the  Greek  of 
iEschylus  (1833);  Poems 
(1844);  .Aurora  Leigh 
(1856) ;  and  Essays  con- 
tributed to  various  maga- 
zines. 


Austro  -  Prussian 
"8even  Weeks' 
War,"  1866. 


Suez   Canal    fin- 
ished, 1869. 


1850 


1860 


458 


TABLES    OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 


Writers. 


WILLIAM 

MAKEPEACE 

THACKERAY. 

1811-1863. 

Novelist;  writer  in 
•  Punch ' ;  artist. 


CHARLES 
DICKENS. 

1812-1870. 

Novelist. 


ROBERT 
BROWNING. 

1812-1889. 
Poet 

JOHN  RUSKIN. 
1819-1900. 

Art-critic ;  essay- 
ist; teacher;  literary 
man. 


GEORGE  ELIOT. 
1819-1880. 

Novelist;    poet; 
essayist. 


ALGERNON 

CHARLES 

SWINBURNE. 

1837-1912. 

Lyric  poet  ;  drama- 
tist ;  prose-writer. 


Works. 


The  Paris  Sketch -Book 
(1840) ;  Vanity  Fair  (1847) ; 
Esmond  (1862);  The  New- 
comes  (1865) ;  The  Vir- 
ginians (1857).  The  great- 
est novelist  and  one  of  the 
most  perfect  stylists  of  the 
19th  cent.  "The  classical 
English  humorist  and  sat- 
irist of  the  reign  of  Qneen 
Victoria." 


Sketches  by  Boz  (1836) ;  The 
Pickwick  Papers  (1837); 
Oliver  Twist  (1838)  ^Nicho- 
las Nickleby  (1838);  and 
many  other  novels  and 
work  s  ^Great  Expectations 
(1860).  The  most  popular 
writer  that  ever  lived. 


Pauline  (1832);  Paracelsus 
(1835) ;  Poems  (1865)  jvThe 
Ring  and  the  Book  (1869) ; 
and  many  other  volumes  of 
poetry. 


Modern  Painters  (1843-60) ; 
The  Stones  of  Venice  (1851- 
53) ;  The  Queen  of  the  Air 
^1869);  An  Autobiography 

(1885) ;  and  very  many  other 
works.  "He  has  a  deep, 
serious,  and  almost  fanatical 
reverence  for  art." 


Scenes  of  Clerical  Life  (1858) 
vAdam  Bede  (1859);  and 
many  other  novels  down  to 
Daniel  Deronda  (1876)  ; 
Spanish  Gypsy  (1868) ;  Le- 
gend of  Jubal  (1874). 


Atalanta  in  Calydon  (1864) ; 
Poems  and  Ballads  (three 
series— 1864,  78,  and  '87), 
and  many  other  poems. 
"The  greatest  metrical  in- 
ventor in  English  litera- 
ture." "His  music  is  like 
no  other  man's." 


Contemporary 

Events. 


Franco  -  Prussian 
War,  1870-71. 


Third  French  Re- 
puolic,  1870. 


William  I.  of 
Prussia  made 
Emperor  of  the 
Germans  at  Ver- 
sailles, 1871. 


Rome  the  new 
capital  of  Italy, 
1871. 


Russo  .  Turkish 
War,  1877-78. 


Berlin  Congress 
and  Treaty, 
1878. 


Leo  XIII.  made 
Pope  in  1878. 


Assassination  of 
Alexander  II., 
1881. 


Arahi  Pasha's  Re- 
bellion, 1882-83. 


War  in  the  Sou- 
dan. 1884. 


Murder   of   Gor- 
don. 1885. 


New  Reform  Bill, 

1885. 


"War  in  S.  Africa, 
1899. 


Death  of  Queen 
Victoria,  1901. 


INDEX 


459 


INDEX. 


PART    I. 


Absolute,  nominative,  66. 
Adjectives,  28. 

comparison  of,  32. 
defective,  34. 
irregular,  33. 
compound,  formation  of,  117. 
demonstrative,  29. 
inflection  of,  31. 
numeral,  29. 
qualitative,  28. 
quantitative,  29. 
suffixes  to,  English,  131. 

Latin  and  French,  138. 
syntax  of,  71. 
Adjective  pronouns  (so-called),  29,  30. 
Adverbs,  57. 

classification  of,  57. 
comparison  of,  57. 
irregular,  58. 
formation  of,  118. 
syntax  of,  83. 
Alphabet,  what  it  is,  7. 

conditions  of  a  perfect,  7. 
the  English,  very  defective,  7,  8. 
Analysis  of  sentences,  86-115. 
complex  sentence,  102. 
(cautions),  107. 
mapping-out  of,  109. 
compound  sentence,  111. 
"  continuous"  method  of,  111. 
"  pigeon-hole  "  method  of,  110. 
simple  sentence,  87. 
(cautions),  93. 
mapping-out  of,  100. 
Anomalous  verbs,  53. 
Antecedent,  26. 
Apposition,  22. 
Articles  (so-called),  29. 
Auxiliary  verbs,  48,  53. 


2  J 


Be,  conjugation  of,  50. 
Branching  of  words,  143-153. 

Cardinal  numerals,  30. 
Case,  19. 

dative,  21. 

different  cases,  with  their  uses,  20. 

nominative,  20. 

objective,  22. 

possessive,  20. 

vocative,  20,  22. 
Cognate  object,  22. 
Comparison  of  adjectives,  82. 
defective,  34. 
irregular,  33. 
of  adverbs,  57. 
irregular,  58. 
Compound  adjectives,  formation  of,  117. 

adverbs,  formation  of,  119. 

nouns,  formation  of,  116. 

verbs,  formation  of,  118. 
Concord,  rules  of,  76. 
Conjugation  of  verbs,  42. 

specimen  of  full,  54. 
Conjunctions,  60. 

syntax  of,  84. 
Conjunctive  (or  relative)  pronouns,  26. 
Connectives,  58. 
Consonant,  5. 

sounds,  table  of,  6. 

Dative  case,  21. 

syntax  of,  69. 
Demonstrative  adjectives,  29. 
Dentals,  5,  6. 

Derivation,  word-building  and,  116-171. 
Derivations  from  English  roots,  144. 

from  Greek  roots,  152. 

from  Latin  roots,  1*7. 


460 


INDEX. 


Derivations  from  names  of  persons,  etc., 
154. 
from  names  of  places,  158. 
of  words  disguised  in  form,  161. 
of  words  greatly  changed  in  meaning, 
168. 
Diphthongs,  5. 

English  inseparable  prefixes,  120. 
roots  and  branches,  144. 
separable  prefixes,  121. 
suffixes  to  adjectives,  131. 
to  adverbs,  133. 
to  nouns,  128. 
to  verbs,  134. 
English  language,  grammar  of,  4. 
origin  and  development  of,  4. 
Etymology,  5,  8-63. 
Extension  of  predicate,  95. 

Factitive  object,  22. 

French  derivations,  etc.,  included  under 

Latin. 
Functions,  words  known  by  their,  61. 

Gender,  11. 

indicated  by  different  words,  14. 

indicated  by  prefixes,  13. 

indicated  by  suffixes,  12. 

Latin  and  French  suffixes  of,  13. 
Gerund,  39. 

Gerundial  infinitive,  82. 
Government  of  verbs,  78. 
Grammar,  4. 

of  letters,  7. 

of  sounds,  5. 

of  words,  8-63. 

parts  of,  4. 
Greek  prefixes,  126. 

roots,  152. 

suffixes,  141. 
Gutturals,  5,  6. 

Have,  conjugation  of,  49. 

Inflexion  of  adjectives,  31. 

of  nouns,  11. 

of  pronouns,  24,  25. 

of  verbs,  36. 
Inseparable  prefixes,  English,  120. 
Interjections,  60. 
Diterrogative  pronouns,  25. 
Intransitive  verbs,  35. 
Irregular  weak  verbs,  46. 

Kinds  of  words,  8. 

known  by  functions,  61. 


Labials,  5,  6. 
Language,  what  it  is,  3. 

spoken  and  written,  3. 
Latin  prefixes,  123. 

roots,  147. 

suffixes  to  adjectives,  138. 
to  nouns,  134. 
to  verbs,  141. 
Letters,  grammar  of,  7. 

redundant,  8. 

Moods,  38. 

syntax  of,  80. 
Mutes,  5,  6. 

Nominative  case,  20. 

absolute,  66 

of  address,  97. 

syntax  of,  64. 
Nouns,  9. 

abstract,  la 

classification  of,  9. 

class-names,  10. 

collective,  10. 

common,  10. 

compound,  formation  of,  116. 

English  suffixes  to,  128. 

inflexions  of,  11. 

Latin  and  French  suffixes  to,  134 

proper,  9. 

syntax  of,  64-71. 
Number  of  nouns,  15. 

of  verbs,  42. 
Numeral  adjectives,  29. 
Numerals,  30. 

Object,  cognate,  22. 

factitive,  22. 

reflexive,  22. 
Objective  case,  22. 

syntax  of,  68. 
Ordinal  numerals,  31. 
Orthography,  5. 

Palatals,  6. 

Participle,  40. 

Passive  voice,  37. 

Person  of  verbs,  42. 

Persons,  words  derived  from  names  of, 

154. 
Places,   words  derived  from  names   of, 

158. 
Plurals,  false,  17. 

foreign,  18. 

modes  of  forming,  19. 

of  compound  words,  19. 

treated  as  singulars,'  18. 


INDEX. 


461 


Plurals,  words  used  only  in  their,  18. 

words  with  two,  17. 
Possessive  case,  20. 

syntax  of,  67. 
Predicate  of  sentence,  89. 
Prefixes,  103. 

English  inseparable,  120. 

English  separable,  121. 

Greek,  126. 

Latin,  123. 

to  indicate  gender,  13. 
Prepositions,  58. 

list  of  special,  84. 

syntax  of,  83. 
Pronouns,  23. 

indefinite,  27. 

inflexions  of,  24,  25. 

interrogative,  25. 

personal,  23. 

reflexive,  25. 

relative  (or  conjunctive),  26. 

syntax  of,  74. 

Qualitative  adjectives,  28. 
Quantitative  adjectives,  29. 

Reflexive  pronouns,  25. 

Relative  (or  conjunctive)  pronouns,  26. 

Roots  and  branches,  143-153. 

English,  144. 

Greek,  152. 

Latin,  147. 

Sentences,  analysis  of,  86-115. 
contracted,  87. 
complex,  102. 
compound,  111. 
simple,  87. 
Separable  prefixes,  English,  121. 
Shall,  conjugation  of,  48. 
Sounds,  grammar  of,  5. 
Spirants,  6. 

Strike,  conjugation  of,  54. 
Strong  and  weak  verbs,  43. 
Strong  verbs,  list  of,  44. 
Subject,  what  it  may  consist  of,  88. 
Sufiixes,  128. 

English,  to  adjectives,  131. 
to  adverbs,  133. 
to  nouns,  128. 
to  verbs,  134. 
Greek,  141. 

Latin,  to  adjectives,  138. 
to  indicate  gender,  13. 
to  nouns,  134. 
to  verbs,  141. 
to  indicate  gender,  12. 
Superlative  degree,  32. 


Syntax,  5,  64-85. 

of  the  adjective,  71. 
of  the  adverb,  83. 
of  the  conjunction,  84. 
of  the  dative,  69. 
of  the  nominative,  64. 
of  the  noun,  64 
of  the  objective,  68. 
of  the  possessive,  67. 
of  the  preposition,  83. 
of  the  pronoun,  74. 
of  the  verb,  76. 

Syntax,  examples  of  false  or  doubtful (85a) 

Tense,  41. 

Transitive  and  intransitive  verba. 

Verbs,  34. 

auxiliary,  36,  48. 
classification  of,  85. 
compound,  formation  of,  118. 
concord  of,  76. 
conjugation  of,  42. 

specimen  of  full,  54. 
defective,  53. 
government  of,  78. 
inflexions  of,  36. 
moods  of,  38,  80. 
notional,  48. 
number  of,  42. 
person  of,  42. 
strong  and  weak,  43. 
strong,  list  of,  44. 
sufiixes  to,  English,  134. 

Latin,  141. 
syntax  of,  76. 
tense  of,  41. 
voice  of,  37. 
weak  and  strong,  43. 
weak,  list  of  irregular,  46. 

two  kinds  of,  45. 
Vocative  case,  20,  22. 
Voice,  active,  37. 

passive,  37. 
Vowel,  5. 

Weak  and  strong  verbs,  43. 
Weak  verbs*  irregular,  46. 

two  kinds  of,  45. 
Will,  conjugation  of,  48. 
Word-branching,  143-153. 

from  English  roots,  144. 

from  Greek  roots,  152. 

from  Latin  roots,  147. 
Word-building  and  derivation,  116-171. 
Words,  grammar  of  (Etymology),  8-63. 

kinds  of,  8. 

known  by  their  functions,  61. 


462 


INDEX. 


PART     II. 


Abstract  versus  concrete,  183. 

Accents  in  verse,  194,  195. 

Accurate  English,  178. 

Admiration,  point  of,  188. 

Adverb,  position  of  the,  185. 

Alexandrine,  199. 

Allegory,  191. 

Amphibrach,  196. 

Amphibrachic  tetrameter,  200. 

Anapaest,  196. 

Anapaestic  tetrameter,  200. 

And  which,  186. 

Antecedent  and  Relative,  to  be  clearly 

connected,  186. 
Antithesis,  182. 

Ballad  metre,  198. 
Blank  verse,  197. 
Brevity,  179. 

Caesura,  203. 

Circumlocution,  185. 

Clearness,  178. 

Coleridge's  examples  and  descriptions  of 

different  metres,  201. 
Colon,  187. 
Comma,  188. 
Compactness,  179. 
Composition,  hints  on,  175. 

cautions,  general,  184. 
special,  185. 

directions,  general,  176. 
Concrete  versus  abstract,  183. 
Conjunctions,  omission  of,  181. 
Couplet,  204. 

Dactyl,  196. 
Dactylic  dimeter,  200. 

tetrameter,  200. 
Dash,  188. 
Defective  lines,  201. 
Dependent,  and  principal  sentences,  not 

to  be  mixed  up,  186. 
Detail,  184. 
Dimeter,  dactylic,  200. 
Distinctness  of  style,  183. 

Elegiac  verse,  204. 
Emphasis,  180. 
English,  accurate,  178. 

flowing,  179. 

good,  176. 

pure,  177. 


Epigram,  182. 
Exaggerated  language,  186. 
Exaggeration  (hyperbole),  191. 
Exclamation,  mark  of,  181. 

Figures  of  speech,  189. 
Flowing  English,  179. 
Foot  (in  verse),  195. 
Full  stop,  187. 

Good  English,  176. 

Hackneyed  phrases,  184. 

Half -rhymes,  202. 

"  Happy  Life,  The,"— paraphrased,  193. 

Heroic  couplet,  204. 

verse,  197. 
Hexameter,  127. 

iambic,  198. 
Hyperbole  (exaggeration),  191 
Hypermetrical  lines,  201. 

Iambic  hexameter,  198. 
pentameter,  197,  198. 
tetrameter,  197,  198. 
trimeter,  197. 

Iambus,  195. 

Imperative  mood,  the  use  of,  in  composi- 
tion, 181. 

Interrogation,  point  of,  188. 

Interrogative  form  (for  emphasis),  181. 

Inversion,  180. 

Loose  sentence,  164,  180. 

Metaphor,  190. 

Metonymy,  191. 

Metres,  examples  and  descriptions  of  the 

different,  by  Coleridge,  201. 
Misplaced  phrases,  187. 
Mixed  metaphors,  185. 

Octave  (ottava  rima),  204. 

(in  the  sonnet),  205. 
Octometer,  trochaic,  199. 


Paraphrase  of  "  The  Happy  Life,' 
Paraphrasing,  192. 
Parenthesis,  188. 
Participles,  management  of,  185. 

present,  185. 
Pentameter,  197,  198. 
Period  (full  stop),  187. 


193. 


INDEX. 


463 


Period  (sentence),  179,  180. 

Periphrasis,  181. 

Personification,  190. 

Principal  and  dependent  sentences,  not 

to  be  mixed  up,  186. 
Pronouns,  management  of,  184. 
Prosody  (grammar  of  verse),  194-201. 
Punctuation,  187. 
Pure  English,  177. 

Quatrain,  204. 

Relative  and  antecedent,  to  be  clearly 

connected,  186. 
Repetition,  181,  182. 
Rhyme,  200. 
Rhythm,  to  be   cultivated  by  reading 

aloud,  179. 

Semicolon,  187. 

Service  metre,  198. 

Sestette,  205. 

Sextant,  204. 

Simile,  189. 

Simplicity,  178. 

Skeleton  of  theme  to  be  written,  176. 

Sonnet,  205. 

Specification,  183. 

Spenserian  stanza,  204. 

Spondee,  201. 

Stanza,  204. 


Subject  of  sentence,  not  to  be  changed, 

186. 
Suspense,  182. 
Synecdoche,  191. 
Synonyms,  178. 

Tautology,  185. 
Tetrameter,  197. 

amphibrachic,  200. 

anapaestic,  200. 

dactylic,  200. 

iambic,  197,  198. 

trochaic,  199. 
That  and  who  distinguished,  186. 
Trimeter,  197. 
Triplet,  204. 

tetrameter,  204. 
Trochaic  octometer,  199. 
Trochee,  195. 

Unrhymed  (blank)  verse,  197. 

Vague  sentence,  contrasted  with  specific, 

183. 
Verbosity,  179. 

Verse,  different  from  Prose  in  two  things, 
194. 
grammar  of  (Prosody),  194-201. 

Which  and  and  which,  186. 
Who  and  that  distinguished,  186. 


PART  III. 


African  words  in  English,  341. 
American  words  in  English,  341. 
Analytic  English  (=  modern),  317. 
Ancient  English,  277. 

synthetic,  317. 
Anglo-Saxon,  specimen  from,  328. 

contrasted  with  English  of  Wyclif 
and  Tyndale,  329. 
Arabic  words  in  English,  341. 
Aryan  family  of  languages,  273. 

Bible,  English  of  the,  334. 
Bilingualism,  300. 

Changes  of  language,  never  sudden,  276. 
Chinese  words  in  English,  342. 


i    Dead  and  living  languages,  276. 
Dialects  of  English,  316. 
Doublets,  English  and  other,  314-316. 

Greek,  311. 

Latin,  308-311. 
Dutch  and  Welsh  contrasted,  275. 

words  in  English,  388. 

English,  272. 

a  Low-German  tongue,  274. 

diagram  of,  281. 

dialects  of,  816. 

early  and  oldest,  compared,  330. 

elements  of,   characteristics  of  the 

two,  312-314. 
English  element  in,  280. 


464 


INDEX. 


English,  foreign  elements  in,  282. 
grammar  of,  its  history,  317-327. 
its  spread  over  Britain,  275. 
modern,  336-343. 
nation,  2 SO. 
of  the  Bible,  334. 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  332. 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  333. 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  334. 
on  the  Continent,  272. 
periods  of,  276-279. 

marks  which  distinguish,  332. 
syntax  of,  changed,  323. 
the  family  to  which  it  belongs,  273. 
the  group  to  which  it  belongs,  273, 

274. 
vocabulary  of,  280-316. 

Foreign  elements  in  English,  282. 
French  (new)  words  in  English,  339. 
(Norman),  see  Norman-French. 

German  words  in  English,  340. 
Grammar  of  English,  317-327. 

comparatively  fixed  (since  1485),  336. 

First  Period,  318. 

general  view  of  its  history,  321. 

Second  Period,  319. 

short  view  of  its  history,  317-321. 

Third  Period,  320. 

Fourth  Period,  320. 
Greek  doublets,  311. 
Gutturals,  expulsion  of,  324-326. 

Hebrew  words  in  English,  340. 
Hindu  words  in  English,  342. 
History  of  English,  landmarks  in,  344. 
Hungarian  words  in  English,  342. 

Indo-European  family,  273. 
Inflexions  in  different  periods,  compared, 
331. 

loss  of,  317,  318. 

grammatical  result  of  loss,  326. 
Italian  words  in  English,  337. 

Keltic  element  in  English,  282-284. 

Landmarks  in  the  history  of  English, 

344. 
Language,  271. 

changes  of  276. 

growth  of,  271. 

living  and  dead,  276. 

spoken  and  written,  281. 

written,  271. 
Latin  contributions  and  their  dates,  287. 


Latin  doublets,  308-311. 

element  in  English,  286-311. 
of  the  eye  and  ear,  308. 
of  the  First  Period,  288. 
Second  Period,  289,  290. 
Third  Period,  290-305. 
Fourth  Period,  305-308. 
triplets,  311. 
Lord's    Prayer,    in    four  versions,    329, 


Malay  words  in  English,  342. 
Middle  English,  278. 
Modern  English,  279,  336-343. 

analytic,  317. 
Monosyllables,  322. 

New  words  in  English,  336-843. 
Norman-French,  290. 

bilingualism  caused  by,  300. 

contributions,  general  character  of, 
298. 

dates  of,  291-293. 

element  in  English,  290-305. 

gains  to  English  from,  299-302. 

losses  to  English  from,  303-305. 

synonyms,  300. 

words,  294-298. 

Oldest  and  early  English  compared,  330. 
Order  of  words  in  English,  changed,  323. 

Periods  of  English,  276-279. 
Ancient,  277. 
Early,  277. 
Middle,  278. 
Tudor,  279. 
Modern,  279. 
grammar  of  the  different,  317-327. 
marks  indicating  different,  332. 
specimens  of  different,  328-335. 
Persian  words  in  English,  342. 
Polynesian  words  in  English,  342. 
Portuguese  words  in  English,  342. 

Renascence  (Revival  of  Learning),  305 
Russian  words  in  English,  342. 

Scandinavian  element  in  English,  284- 

286. 
Scientific  terms  in  English,  343. 
Spanish  words  in  English,  337. 
Specimens  of  English  of  different  periods, 

328-335. 
Spoken  and  written  language,  281. 
Syntax  of  English,  change  in,  323. 
Synthetic  English  (= ancient),  317. 


INDEX. 


465 


Tartar  words  in  English,  342. 
Teutonic  group,  273. 
Tndor  English,  279. 
T  nrkish  words  in  English,  342. 
Ty  ndale's  English,  compared  with  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Wyclif,  329. 

Vocabulary  of  the  English  language,  280- 
816. 


Welsh  and  Dutch  contrasted,  275. 
Words  and  inflexions  in  different  periods, 
compared,  331. 
new,  in  English,  336-343. 
Written  language,  271. 

and  spoken,  281. 
Wyclif  s  English,  compared  with  Tyn- 
dale's  and  Anglo-Saxon,  329. 


PART  IV. 


Addison,  Joseph,  893. 
Alfred,  354. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  354 
Arnold,  Matthew,  437. 
Austen,  Jane,  426. 

Bacon,  Francis,  377. 

Bseda  (Venerable  Bede),  353. 

Barbour,  John,  363. 

Btovrulf,  351. 

Blake,  William,  412. 

Browning,  Robert,  436. 

Browning,  Mrs.,  435. 

Brunanburg,  Song  of,  353. 

Brunne,  Robert  of,  357. 

Brut,  355. 

Bunyan,  John,  887. 

Burke,  Edmund,  404 

Burns,  Robert,  410. 

Butler,  Samuel,  382. 

Byron,  George  Gordon,  Lord,  421. 

Csedmon,  352. 
Campbell,  Thomas,  420. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  427. 
Caxton,  William,  366. 
Chatterton,  Thomas,  411. 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  361. 

followers  of,  865. 
Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  418. 
Collins,  William,  399. 
Cowper,  William,  407. 
Crabbe,  George,  409. 

Defoe,  Daniel,  390. 
De  Quincey,  Thomas,  426. 
Dickens,  Charles,  489. 
Dryden,  John,  883. 


Eliot,  George,  442. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  405. 
Gloucester,  Robert  of,  357. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  403. 
Gower,  John,  360. 
Gray,  Thomas,  398. 

Hobbes,  Thomas,  386. 
Hooker,  Richard,  374. 

James  I.  (of  Scotland),  365. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  401. 
Jonson,  Ben,  873. 

Keats,  John,  423. 

Lamb,  Charles,  424. 

Landor,  Walter  Savage,  425. 

Langlande,  William,  360. 

Layamon,  355. 

Locke,  John,  887. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  432. 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  429. 
Maldon,  Song  of  the  Fight  at,  353. 
Mandeville,  Sir  John,  359. 
Marlowe,  Christopher,  378. 
Milton,  John,  381. 
Moore,  Thomas,  420. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  368. 
Morris,  William,  438. 

Orm's  Ormulum,  856. 

Pope,  Alexander,  895,  897. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  376. 
Ruskin,  John,  441. 


466 


INDEX. 


Scott,  Sir  Walter,  417. 
Shakespeare,  William,  370,  379. 

contemporaries  of,  372. 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  422. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  375. 
Southey,  Robert,  419. 
J-  penser,  Edmund,  369. 
Steele,  Richard,  394. 
Surrey,  Earl  of,  367. 
Swift,  Jonathan,  391. 


Taylor,  Jeremy,  385. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  438. 
Thackeray,  William  Makepeace,  439. 
Thomson,  James,  397,  398. 
Tyndale,  William,  368. 

Wordsworth,  William,  415. 
Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  367. 
Wyclif,  John,  360. 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty, 
at  the  Edinb    ^h  University  Press 


^B  364/9 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


( 


